BV 4501 
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Copy 1 



^LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. $ 



* # 

! UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.! 






DOMESTIC DUTIES. 



A SERIES OF 



SERMONS 



PREACHED IN 



TRINITY CHURCH, SAINT MARYLEBONE, 



REV. THOS. GARNIER, B.C.L., 

n THE RECTOR: 

AND CHAPLAIN TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. 



3 



4BQ2- 



^«m&*fP 



LOjNDON: 



r 

J. LAYER, 81, GEEAT PORTLAND STREET, 



PORTLAND PLACE. 

1851. 



y^A* 



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lon t don: layer, printer, 
great portland street, portland place. 



CONTENTS. 



The Duty of Parents 1 

The Duty of Children - - - - - 19 

The Duty of Masters - - - 41 

The Duty of Servants - - - - - 61 

The Duty of Husbands 85 

The Duty of Wives - - - - - lu5 



PREFACE. 



The topics treated in the following pages, do not very fre- 
quently form the substance of addresses from the pulpit. 

A dread of falling into the error of a large proportion of 
the preachers'of the last century, upon whom it has been, 
with too much justice, charged, that their sermons were but 
little better than lectures upon morality, — and a desire to 
maintain, in all their integrity, the great fundamental doc- 
trines of the Gospel, against the attempts that are being 
made to cast them into the obscurity from -which they were 
won at the era of the Reformation, have doubtless urged 
the more earnest -minded ministers of our Church, in these 
days, to dwell almost exclusively on doctrinal subjects. 

Such a mode of handling the Word of God is, however, 
far from being adjusted to the apostolic model. 

The inspired authors of the Epistles have largely inter- 
woven exhortations upon the details of Christian practice into 
the thread of their abstract expositions of Divine truth. 

So far from being satisfied with furnishing the Churches 



VI PEEFACE. 

with a principle, and with leaving them to carry out that 
principle in the actings of common life, they have minutely 
described the duties required of believers in their various 
relations, thus raising a goodly superstructure of practical 
godliness, upon a solid foundation of scriptural instruction. 
And herein, unquestionably, is the master-spring of the 
effectiveness of the Christian ministry. 

" Ministers " (saith good Archbishop Leighton) " are not to 
instruct or to exhort only, but do to both. To exhort men to 
holiness, and the duties of the Christian life, without instruct- 
ing them in the doctrine of faith, is to build a house without 
a foundation. And, on the other side, to instruct the mind 
in the knowledge of divine things, and neglect the press- 
ing of that practice and power of godliness, which is the 
undivided companion of true faith, is to forget the building, 
that ought to be raised upon that foundation once laid, which 
is likewise a point of great folly." 

The former indeed must be done, if the ministry of the 
word is to be a ministry of life, — for the experience of 
eighteen hundred years has abundantly shown, that a pure 
and scriptural standard of doctrine is indissolubly connected 
with a corresponding elevation of holiness, — and that the 
Lord will never " give testimony" but "to the word of His 
grace." 

The latter, at the same time, may not be left undone, since 
a minute and particular development of the distinct parts of 



PREFACE. Vll 

Christian duty is indispensable, both to sift the false pro- 
fessor of religion, as well as to quicken the sincere believer. 

Such high and spiritual precepts, as those which are 
attempted to be expounded in this volume, relating to the 
reciprocal duties of domestic life, are surely calculated to 
lead many around us to the unwelcome, though not unsafe 
conclusion, " If this is Christianity, we have yet to learn and 
feel it, and to enter upon its narrow path." 

Others who are as yet, but partially instructed in Divine 
things, cannot but be powerfully excited by meditating 
upon them, to attempt a far higher standard of holy prac- 
tice than they have hitherto attained ; while even the most 
advanced may gather something of edification from a devout 
study of such passages, which manifestly embody some of 
the most deep, glorious, and animating truths that have been 
brought to light by the Gospel, — and which point in so dis- 
tinct and affecting a manner to Christ, as the only originating 
source — the only safe and blameless model — and the 
only animating motive of true holiness, to men of all degrees 
and relations of society. 

In the humble confidence, and with the fervent prayer, 
that such results may in some measure be accomplished by 
the publication of these Sermons, the author, yielding to the 
wishes of many members of his beloved flock, commits them 
to the press. 

Conscious thattheirmany deficiencies, and the little claim they 



Vlll PEEFACE. 

possess to come before the notice of any than those to whom 
they were originally addressed, he, nevertheless, ventures to 
hope, that this unpretending Volume will be blessed by Him, 
in whose name it is sent forth, far beyond its deserts ; and 
that in each household to which it shall be admitted, it will 
be instrumental in promoting that spirit of holy order, mu- 
tual subjection, and love unfeigned which form the only true 
foundation of family happiness here on earth, and is the 
only sure pledge, that the bonds of kindred and domestic 
intercourse, which death will sever, shall be reunited to be 
separated no more, in the mansions of the house of our 
Father which is in heaven. 



€5* IButg of ilarotts* 



Sermon £♦ 



THE DUTY OF PARENTS. 

Preached December 29, 1850. 



Ephesians, vi. 4. " Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but 
bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." 

The near approach of another year summons us to serious 
recollection. It reminds us that the sand which mea- 
sures our hours, is rapidly sinking in the glass, — that we 
know not, any of us, how much may remain, — how soon the 
last grain may steal away, and leave it empty, — and yet, that 
a chain of everlasting consequences hangs upon the feeble 
thread of this momentary existence. 

And surely, if this be not a mere insulated portion of time 
complete in itself, and unconnected with the endless dura- 
tion of succeeding ages, — if life be not a condition to which 
no important duties are annexed, — but if, on the contrary, 
it be the infancy of our existence, the place and manner of 
which are soon to be changed, but the continuance never 
suspended, — if, in short, men are not mere " bubbles of a 
fantastic deity, blown up in sport, rising and breaking 
millions in an hour," but immortal beings, sent into the 
school of this lower world for the purpose of a short pro- 
bation, and, after they have been sufficiently tried, to be 

B 2 



4 THE DUTY OF PARENTS. 

adjudged to everlasting happiness or misery, according to the 
characters and tempers which they shall have acquired in this 
state of discipline ; — if this be the true intent and explanation 
of this brief portion of our existence, then, of what supreme 
concernment is it, that we enquire (especially at such a season 
as this) whether we are complying with the merciful design 
of the Creator of our being, and are working the works of 
Him who hath sent us into the world. 

It would, therefore, be no inappropriate, and certainly, no 
unprofitable mode of occupying your thoughts on the morn- 
ing of the last Sunday of the year, did I proceed to assist 
you severally in considering for what purpose you are ushered 
into life, — whether you are at all answering that purpose, — 
and whether it is with hope or with fear that you can reason- 
ably anticipate that decisive day, which will wind up our 
accounts for ever, and assign to us an unchangeable futurity. 

I would, however, for two special reasons, limit my en- 
quiries and instructions to a particular class of my hearers to- 
day ; even to those to whom God hath given influence and 
authority as parents, 

Firstly, because if their duty were only universally discharged 
with fidelity, our solemn admonitions on such subjects as 
those to which I have referred would scarcely be needed, — 
if it were their care, from the first, to fix on the minds of 
their offspring a sense of their accountableness, as immortal 
beings, and the great ends for which they have been called 
into existence, then would there be but comparatively little 
occasion for those appeals and instructions which so often 
issue from our pulpits, at this season, bearing on the very first 
principles of religious truth, and, apparently far more adapted 
to a Pagan auditory, than to those who have been nursed up 
in the bosom of a Christian Church ; 



THE DUTY OF PARENTS. 5 

And Secondly, because that interesting portion of the 
year has come round to us, which is marked by the 
gathering together of the members of every household 
around the domestic hearth, and in which every Christian 
parent's heart cannot but be warmed with peculiar delight 
at the sight of his assembled children, and when all his 
best and deepest affection must necessarily be drawn out 
towards them. Just, then, at the commencement of 
this happy season, and at a moment when we hope to in- 
terest you in an especial manner on behalf of your beloved 
children, I would address to you, Parents, a word from God, 
and place before you that course of conduct on your parts 
which he has enjoined, and therefore, with which their wel- 
fare and your own are most deeply, nearly, and permanently 
involved. 

May the Holy Spirit of God bless our meditations, and 
direct us to a true and profitable understanding of his own 
gracious word, while I first point out something of the affect- 
ing relation in which parents stand to their children, and then 
open and enforce the exhortation of the text," Fathers, pro- 
voke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the 
nurture and admonition of the Lord." 

I. — With what a yearning, yet solemn, interest ought 
every parent to regard his offspring ! How imperfectly, in- 
deed, is the real nature of the tie that binds them together 
understood ! Joy, it is true, glows in the countenance of the 
young mother, as she gazes on the form of her new-born babe. 
She looks forward in hope and anticipation to bright visions 
of happiness. The infant is presented at the Font. Sponsors 
are chosen with a view to their wealth, their influence, and 
the likelihood of their setting forward the temporal welfare 
of the child, and without any reference to the faith with which 



THE DUTY OF PARENTS. 



they will pray for it, and the solicitude with which they will 
watch over its everlasting interests ; and then, there is the 
joyous gathering, — the harp, the viol, and the tabret are in 
their feast, and levity, if not actual excess and profaneness, 
too commonly desecrates the day. 

Thus the helpless little one is treated from the first as a 
thing of earth — the chance-born creature of an hour — ushered 
into the world to flutter through a gay and fleeting life, as 
the beautiful, but ephemeral, insect of summer. 

O ! they forget that they have received into their hands 
an immortal being, compared with whose value all the mate- 
rial creation is but as the small dust in the balance, and 
measured with whose existence, centuries are but as sand 
grains. 

Here is a body fearfully and wonderfully made, bearing 
the clear impress of the hand of Omnipotence ! 

Here is a soul endued with mighty faculties, and susceptible 
of the highest and most glorious destiny ; and this wonderful 
creature has come to them in the most helpless and dependent 
condition, — feeble beyond description in respect of this life, — 
dependent upon his parents for sustenance, for protection, for 
guidance, for everything ! And, O ! how much more depend- 
ent upon them for all that pertains to everlasting life ! God 
has given him, to them, to be brought up for Himself. Alas ! 
he has come to them in a prostrate and pitiable condition, 
born in sin, conceived in iniquity, a child of wrath, in com- 
mon with all the species, and thus, as his intellect expands, 
and his moral qualities exhibit themselves, sin is sure to be 
developed, and ample evidence will inevitably be given of the 
existence within him of a heart deceitful above all things, and 
desperately wicked. Whether these evil dispositions shall 
gather strength by unchecked rankness of growth, or whether 



THE DUTY OF PARENTS. 7 

they shall be cut back from the very first, and be gradually 
weakened by prompt correction and judicious training, ob- 
viously depends upon the parents alone. 

The child's imitative and plastic mind will readily mould 
itself after whatever examples may be presented to it, and, in 
the absence of all corrective discipline, his innate corruptions 
will rapidly grow up to luxuriant maturity, and he will be 
found fully launched upon the fatal path of iniquity, even 
before he has attained to the power of discerning good from 
evil. 

What an awakening and animating thought ought this 
to be to every one who is called to fulfil this important 
relation ! 

As regards these tender, but immortal, beings, Parents, 
you stand nearest to God, to them. To you, under Him, do 
they owe their natural life, and daily subsistence and sup- 
port. To you, in scarcely a less degree, must they be in- 
debted for the complexion of their moral character and 
eternal destiny. 

If, in some remarkable instances, the offspring of evil and 
unfaithful parents have become men of God and heirs of His 
salvation, take no encouragement from this. It is, indeed, 
wondrously emphatic of the overflowing grace and sovereignty 
of Jehovah, that he sometimes plucks from the jaws of destruc- 
tion, those who have been from their tenderest years exposed 
to the influence of corrupting examples, and have imbibed 
even from their mother's breast the principles of worldliness 
and irreligion. But these cases are comparatively rare, and 
afford to the unfaithful parent not a shadow of hope, that, 
if he refuses to discharge the sacred stewardship entrusted 
to him, his children will not perish, and that their blood will 
not be visited on his head. 



8 THE DUTY OF PARENTS. 

The usual method of God in operating upon the souls of 
men, is, I verily believe, by making use of parental influence, 
and parental prayer. 

If these means be neglected, riothing can supply the want; 
domestic discord and misery will inevitably ensue. If they 
are faithfully used, an abundant blessing may be expected. 
Patience may have a long time to wait ; many a tear may be 
shed ; many a bitter pang experienced, — but " the latter rain" 
will come down in God's good time, and it will be found that 
no man is engaged in a hopeless task, who is striving to 
bring up his children " in the nurture and admonition of the 
Lord." 

II. — Let me then call your notice, in the second place, to 
the direction here laid down, as to the manner in which the 
education of children is to be conducted by their parents. 

1. — We have the warning exhortation given, "Fathers, 
provoke not your children to wrath." 

This precept seems to take it for granted, that the parent 
has learnt something of the weighty nature of the responsi- 
ble charge committed to him. It presupposes that he is 
already alive to the importance of the moral training of chil- 
dren, and that he has found the education of his offspring to 
be a process involving a continual struggle between the im- 
pulse of natural inclination, on the one hand, and of the 
sterner obligations of duty, on the other. 

But it, at the same time, seems to imply, that in many 
instances, the corrective discipline exercised by the conscien- 
tious parent may be carried too far, and enforced too strin- 
gently ; and it would infuse into it more of that spirit of love, 
which is breathed in the whole plan and in every precept of 
the Gospel. 

Here is, indeed, no commendation of that weak partiality 



THE DUTY OF PARENTS. 9 

and ruinous indulgence, which are often mistaken for love, but 
which are a poor and wretched imitation of it. Christian 
parents need not be told, that conflict must daily be experi- 
enced in the process of education. 

When they bend by the bedside of their sleeping little ones, 
there is no supplication, I am sure, that bursts from their 
hearts more earnestly than this, that they may be led by a 
better strength and a purer wisdom than their own, to do, 
simply, what is right for their children, whatever may 
be the cost, whatever the sacrifice to them, or to them- 
selves. 

The precept does not in any measure enjoin a vacillating, 
yielding temper ; it would not have a father less resolutely 
firm, or a mother less tremblingly anxious for her offspring ; 
but it reprobates that needless and perpetual restriction, 
which some parents lay upon their children, which only stirs 
up all the evil passions of their hearts, and compels them to 
sigh for deliverance from the parental roof. 

It censures, too, that cold and haughty bearing displayed 
by some heads of families, which cannot but effectually repel 
and freeze up the gushing affections of the young child, as 
well as that undue severity of discipline, which will lead him 
to conclude, that Christianity is a morose and severe system, 
and that happiness can never dwell in the heart in which 
Christ himself reigns. 

Above all, it condemns all passionate correction. There are 
parents who declare that they cannot correct their children 
unless they are urged to it by anger. Far better would it be 
for such parents never to correct them at all. 

Children almost always discover the real nature of our im- 
proper conduct, far more perfectly than we either wish or 
suspect, and they are especially quick in understanding of the 



10 THE DUTY OF PARENTS. 

government of mere passion, that it is weak, vacillating, and 
sinful. 

The parent who administers it will be dreaded indeed, but 
only in the same manner as the Isaelites feared their Egyp- 
tian taskmasters. 

He will neither be revered nor loved. His commands, so 
far as they cannot be avoided without danger, will be fol- 
lowed ; so far as they can be disregarded with impunity, will 
be invariably evaded. The obedience will be mere eye-ser- 
vice ; a spirit of secret rebellion will be fostered ; and the 
general rule of children under such treatment will be, always 
to counteract their parents' pleasure, whenever their own 
safety will permit them to do so. 

Be calm, then, and even tender in the correction of your 
children. 

Let your whole conduct prove that you are compelled to 
this unwelcome office by duty only, and that you are acting 
in fact by the express command, and under the solemn sanc- 
tion of, your Creator and Judge, from whom you have received 
the authority you hold. 

2. — But the exhortation of the Apostle embraces more 
than a warning, it adds the positive direction, "Bring them 
up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." 

" Bring them up," — the word is also employed at the 29th 
verse of the preceding chapter, and is there more literally 
translated " nourish." It implies all tenderness and gentle- 
ness of care, such as a man commonly exercises towards his 
own flesh, ministering to its wants, and looking carefully to 
its health and safety. 

It is, however, the moral life of the child to which reference 
is made. " Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of 
the Lord." The infant mind opens far faster than we are 



THE DUTY OF PARENTS. 11 

generally aware of. How customary is it for those who have 
the charge of young children to express themselves astonished 
at the early proofs they give of precocious thought and in- 
telligence ! 

Nor is this the mere partial inference of parental fond- 
ness. The fact is that the intellect of childhood greatly 
outruns in its progress our liveliest expectations — a constitu- 
tion of things most mercifully provided that impressions may 
be made, which shall arm the young mind against the seduc- 
tion and corrupting influence it must sooner or later encounter ; 
and thus determine the character of the whole future life. 
How immense then the importance of our seizing on this 
favourable juncture to fix religious impressions and religious 
truths on the conscience of our offspring ! 

Nor let it be thought that the mysteries of the kingdom of 
God lie beyond the grasp of the childish comprehension. 
There may be, it is true, dry scholastic statements of Divine 
doctrine, and logical and curious disquisitions, whereby men, 
too commonly, " darken counselby words without knowledge," 
which can only prove perplexing and unpalatable to the 
simple mind of childhood. 

But there is a setting forth of religious truth, which is 
intelligible and arresting at the tenderest age. The nature 
and consequences of sin — the holy character of God — the 
doctrine of the atonement, and its blessed effects in quieting 
the conscience, and in giving peace, and happiness, and rest 
— the necessity of holiness — the blessedness of true religion 
— the unfailing pleasantness of the path of life — these pure 
and simple elements of Divine knowledge may be instilled 
by little and little into the infant mind, and by these means 
it may become " nourished up in the words of faith and of 
sound doctrine." 



12 THE DUTY OF PARENTS. 

Begin then, brethren, with your children from their tenderest 
years. Begin from the first to teach them to fear the great 
and glorious God, to whom they owe their existence and the 
blessings they possess. 

Strive to fasten upon their consciences a sense of their 
accountableness. Every child should know, as soon as he is 
capable of knowing any thing, that he is a moral being, in a 
state of probation for his conduct — and that there is a day of 
judgment before him, when he will be tried, and must either 
be acquitted or condemned. 

Proper impressions of these two great subjects, habitually 
made in the early stages of childhood, will not fail, humanly 
speaking, to exert a most powerful influence on the subsequent 
life. 

But ! lead your children from the first to the feet of the 
Son of God. Teach them his grace, his compassion, his love, 
his willingness and ability to save to the uttermost. Shew 
them that the same God to whom they are accountable 
as a Judge, has suffered, and bled, and died, for them as their 
Saviour. Instruct them to trust Him, to make Him their 
only Mediator, and faithful Advocate. O ! teach them to pray 
in his name ! Lead them to the throne of grace in a spirit 
of earnest and solemn supplication, and train their lisping 
lips to make the utterance of their wants and desires at the 
footstool of God. 

Remember at the same time to base all your instruction 
upon the declarations of God's own word. Habituate them 
to bring all doctrines and duties to the test of that unerring 
balance, and let them preceive that you require of them to 
believe nothing, and to do nothing, for which you cannot 
produce a warrant from the volume of God's inspired testi- 
mony. 



THE DUTY OF PARENTS. 13 

And yet it is comparatively but a small part of the faithful 
education of children, that we teach them the abstract truths 
of Christianity. There is a particular mode of imparting 
religious instruction which the Scriptures themselves point 
out as being highly necessary to success. 

" Thou shalt talk of them," said Moses to the Israelites, 
" when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest 
by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest 
up." Yes, brethren, talk of the truths of God at all times, 
and at all places, but not merely by your speech, but by your 
daily and habitual practice. 

It would be well did we all remember that we can none 
of us live without exerting influence. The doors of our souls 
are open to others, and their souls to us. We inhabit a house 
which is well-nigh transparent, and what we are within, we 
are ever shewing ourselves to be without, by signs which have 
no ambiguous expression. 

But of all who are brought in contact with us, our children 
are our most busy and accurate observers. 

They watch us closely — not intentionally, but intuitively. 
They cannot but observe us, — and however excellent our 
teaching may be, all will be in vain if our practice is at 
variance with the principles we profess. 

Take heed to yourselves, parents, that ye speak one 
language. Let not your prayers say one thing and your 
behaviour another. Be not serious around the family altar, 
and yet frivolous almost to profaneness around the family 
hearth. 

If when you have warned your children against the snares 
and enticements of a vain and wicked world, they see that you 
yourselves are afraid of its contempt, and observe a scrupulous 
conformity to its customs, language, and maxims — if they see 



14 THE DUTY OF PARENTS. 

in your society, your pursuits, your equipages, your houses, 
your dress, your modes of acting and speaking, that you do 
not hesitate to step boldy across the line of demarcation which 
God has drawn around his true servants, separating them to 
himself as a holy and peculiar people, what will all your 
admonitions avail? 

O ! how solemn will it be when you come to stand by the 
sick bed of your beloved child, if such shall be your painful 
lot, to reflect that after all there has been no real education 
for God. Why all this hardness ? Why all these frozen 
affections ? — this insensibility of conscience, this reluctance 
to prayer, this fretfulness and impatience, have they not pro- 
ceeded from my own inconsistency, my own half-heartedness ? 

How fearful the thought when you come to lay that blighted 
blossom in its last resting place, that you, its appointed 
guardian, were a stumbling-block in its path, hedging up its 
way to eternal life ! 

And, you, who affect altogether to despise as unnecessary, 
and fruitless, this conscientious vigilance in the training of 
children, believe me, you wil? one day wish that you had 
been wise enough to exercise a similar fidelity yourselves. — 
If in your conduct towards your offspring you care not into 
what demoralizing scenes and spectacles you introduce them 
— if you consider not what examples, however corrupting, 
you place before them, you will surely have no reason to be 
surprised if they grow up godless and dissolute men. If, too, 
in selecting the schools at which to place them it is your 
only object to promote their intellectual improvement, and to 
secure for them a circle of influential and aristocratical ac- 
quaintances — and so long as these two points are gained it is 
no matter of concern to you that their young minds, which 
are daily being bro ught into contact with the polluted sentiments 



THE DUTY OF PARENTS. 15 

of heathen poetry, and those daring and unfettered flights 
of imagination by which the German literature, so much 
cultivated in our day, is characteristed, — have no counter- 
acting influence of faithful and solid Christian teaching to guide 
and keep them in the path of life — what can you expect but 
that they will fall an easy prey to scepticism and licentiousness ; 
and, that being depraved in their morals, and freethinkers in 
their religion, they will add to the many burdens of your 
declining years, those of shame and unavailing self-condemna- 
tion? 

Yes, you may despise Christian instruction and faithful 
training — you may declaim loudly upon the necessity of in- 
fusing into the bosoms of your children a spirit of manly 
energy and worldly wisdom, that they may be able successfully 
to combat the difficulties and seductive temptations of public 
life ; but as the stream of time flows on, and the masculine 
and independent temper, which you glory in having instilled 
into their minds, begins to develope itself in a self-willed, 
haughty, and rebellious bearing towards yourselves, their 
divinely appointed guides and instructors — in a contempt for 
every time-honoured institution or long-established opinion ; 
— or even in a violent insubordination to the constituted 
authorities of your country — will no pang of bitter remem- 
brance wring your heart, and awake you to the painful con- 
viction that it was your own improvident hand that sowed the 
seed of which you are now reaping the baneful crop — and 
that had you faithfully stemmed, instead of encouraged, their 
inborn self-willedness, and implanted from the first habits of 
conscientious obedience — that had you trained them, when 
their spirits were still supple and tender, to walk, (as Christ 
himself walked) in the path of parental subjection, you would 
not now be suffering from evils which are breaking up the 



16 THE DUTY OF PARENTS. 

peace of your family circle, and planting the couch of your 
declining years with many a rankling thorn ? 

Surely then, brethren, we are brought to this point : that 
there can be no effective or successful education, unless the 
love of God, and a knowledge of the truth of God, have been 
planted by divine grace in the breasts of those who conduct 
it. That mother can never instruct her little child in 
the true nature of its heart, as born in sin, if she herself is 
unacquainted with her own sinful state in the sight of God, 
and has never been affected with deep penitential feelings ; — 
nor can she exhibit to its enquiring mind and opening affec- 
tions the amazing love of God in sending his Son Jesus 
Christ to die for man, if she has never felt the power of the 
Saviour's love, and has never fled to him for refuge and peace. 

The Christian education of your children, brethren, and 
the successful regulation of your own households, must there- 
fore commence in your own bosoms. 

Moses did not call upon the parents of the Israelites to 
teach the things of God to their offspring, until he had first 
exhorted, " Let these words be in thine heart." 

For their sakes therefore, as well as for your own, O ! see 
to it ; that your affections are enlisted on the side of God. — 
See that " out of the abundance of your hearts your mouths 
are enabled to speak;" for religious instruction, proceeding 
from the lips of those who are evidently irreligious, will never 
be effectual; and precepts of morality will be worse than empty 
sounds, when connected with worldliness and carelessness of 
life. 

On the other hand, if the responsible duty of Christian 
education is conscientiously and consistently carried on, 
there will, in the end, be an abundant blessing ; " for He is 
faithful who hath promised." 



THE DUTY OF PARENTS. 17 

The seed may lie a long while dormant and unproductive ; 
but in the day of God's power, the bud shall be put forth, 
which shall blossom and bear fruit for eternity. 

Numberless instances might be adduced to prove the truth 
of this. Let this one suffice. See the noble-minded Hannah 
devoting her child by a solemn vow, to the service of the 
altar, and depriving herself, almost from his birth, of the 
solace of his society. Here was persevering prayer, joined 
with sedulous and self-denying exertion, on behalf of her 
infant ; and all, in the end, crowned with the happiest re- 
sults. She " lent him to the Lord," and the Lord gave him 
back to her with abundant increase ; for, what must have 
been her joy, as, in her old age, she witnessed the high pro- 
phetic honours conferred upon her son, and the almost fault- 
less consistency and perfect success with which he was en- 
abled to witness for the Lord as the leader and commander of 
his chosen people ! Deny yourselves, and exert yourselves, 
beloved brethren, in behalf of your children — read with them, 
counsel them, do all that in you lies to bring them to 
the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and water 
all your efforts with fervent and continual prayer. 

In a word, be to them all that every parent who hears me 
will wish that he had been to his children, when he comes to lay 
his head upon his dying pillow — be their spiritual instructors 
and God will bless you in your deed, even above your most 
sanguine expectations. 

According to his own promise, he will "pour out his Spirit 
upon your seed, and his blessing upon your offspring, and 
they shall grow up like plants by the water-courses/' rich in 
the verdure and unfading fruits of righteousness, to comfort 
you in your declining years with their affectionate attention 
and Christian conversation, and to be your joy and crown 

c 



18 THE DUTY OF PARENTS. 

throughout eternity, dwelling with you, to be separated from 
you no more for ever, in that " house not made with han ds 
eternal in the heavens.' ' 



€$e Hui£ of dtfjfl&ren* 



c 2 



•ermon M. 



THE DUTY OF CHILDREN. 

Preached January 5, 1851. 



Colossians, iii. 20. "Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is 
wellpleasing unto the Lord." 

The immediate and especial object of my addressing you upon 
the occasion of our meeting together on the first Sunday of 
the New Year is, to bring before you the obligations and 
duties of children ; and the reasons which induce me to 
select this particular topic for such an occasion, are exactly 
those Tvhich I assigned in vindication (if vindication were 
necessary) of the discourse I delivered last Sunday upon the 
parental relation and responsibility. 

We are often reproved, and rightly so, that in our addresses 
to our people, we too frequently overlook the younger part of 
our hearers, who sometimes may come week after week, and 
month after month, and hear nothing that especially concerns 
them — nothing, at least, that touches upon their peculiar con- 
dition, and relative duties. 

I would endeavour, this morning, to supply that omission, 
and to take away all ground for so serious a reproof. And 
what season could I have chosen more favourable for such an 
attempt? The voice of congratulation and joy echoes through 



22 THE DUTY OF CHILDREN. 

our dwellings. Gladness lights up each parent's countenance 
as he looks around, and beholds a still unbroken circle, while 
the beaming smiles that meet him at every glance, seem most 
eloquently to plead for more than his usual tokens of tender- 
ness and love. 

At such a time, therefore, it will not be accounted an un- 
seasonable, nor prove an ungrateful task, to which I now 
address myself, — of endeavouring to bind, more effectually, 
the hearts of the children of this congregation to their parents, 
as I have already sought to draw forth a deeper solicitude in the 
bosoms of their parents towards them, — of attempting to give 
strength and immortality to the already strong bonds of their 
natural affection, by interweaving with them a holy and 
Christian principle. And, surely, I need say but little of the 
merciful importance of the precept I am about to enforce. 
Difficult as some of its requirements confessedly are, it cannot 
be denied, that the Gospel is essentially benign in its spirit and 
tendency, and that were all ranks and orders of men brought 
under its gentle sway, the world would present one un- 
broken scene of harmony and joy. It sheds a tranquillis- 
ing light upon every circumstance, upon every subject, and 
upon every relation of life. It instructs us, not only how 
to be happy in ourselves, how to enjoy peace with God in 
our own souls, but it aims at binding together the communities 
and households of mankind in the most enduring ties. 

It is true, that it does not always produce this harmonizing 
effect. Divisions seem to spring up in its track. Rejected 
by many, and embraced cordially only by a few, the Saviour's 
prediction is often realised, that where his Gospel should be 
preached, a man's foes should be found among his own 
household. 

It has often happened (and while the present dispensation 



THE DUTY Or CHILDREN. 23 

lasts, in which the evil are mingled with the good, it must 
ever continue to occur) that, while the child has been brought 
to attend unto the things that belong unto his peace, the 
parent is still ignorant and unmindful of them ; and thus, the 
sword of religious discord, which our Lord declared had leapt 
from its scabbard upon his coming into the world, has cut 
asunder, in a great measure, the ligaments of their mutual 
natural affection ; and yet, even in these peculiarly painful 
and perplexing circumstances, the Gospel is not incapable of 
exerting its healing and peace-giving influences. What, 
in a situation so distressing, is to be the character of the 
child's deportment towards his parent ? Is he to erect a new 
standard of duty to himself, on the ground of his having 
received clearer views of Divine things than those to whom 
God hath entrusted the guidance of his youth ? Is he now 
to escape from what he may be tempted to regard as a very 
irksome obligation ? Is it becoming in him, except when re- 
quired to perform that which is distinctly and positively 
opposed to the plain sense of a written command of God, to 
rise up against his parents' authority, — to pour utter con- 
tempt on his parents' words ? The Holy Spirit, by whom 
the writers of the Xew Testament were moved, must have 
contemplated such a case ; for, doubtless, there were many 
children among the Ephesian converts, whose parents were 
yet in unbelief, w r hen the command which forms my text was 
given forth ; and yet even in the midnight darkness of Hea- 
thenism does that infinitely wise and merciful Spirit, make 
no exception and permit no relaxation of the Divine com- 
mandment. " Children, obey your parents in all things : for 
this is w T ellpleasing unto the Lord." 

May the same blessed Spirit of Truth and Love enable us to 
lend an attentive ear to the precept which he hath written 



24 THE DUTY OF CHILDREN. 

for our learning, and from which all may derive some spiritual 
profit ; and, more especially, may he open the minds of the 
younger members of my audience, who, at this happy season, 
are gathered together with their parents in the sanctuary of 
God ; to receive with meekness the Divine instructions upon 
the nature of their obligations as children, — on a faithful dis- 
charge of which, the Scripture assures us, their present and 
eternal welfare most materially depends. 

I would first explain the command itself, and then point out 
the important consideration by which it is enforced. 

I. — With regard to our first point, namely, the spirit and 
actual purport of the command itself, it is my duty to remind 
you, my young friends, that the obedience to your parents, 
which is here so rigidly demanded, is something far beyond 
a mere formal and respectful submission to their authority. 

1, You are to render them the obedience of veneration. 
You will remember, that the fifth commandment of the 
moral law, of which these words are, after all, but the echo 
and confirmation, goes at once to the thoughts and intents of 
the heart. "Honour thy father and thy mother." You are 
to hold in sacred esteem, the office they bear. There is no 
earthly relation so venerable as that in which they stand to 
you. It is unlike the relation of master and servant, or even 
of husband and wife, which, in either case, is the result of 
voluntary preference, and mutual choice. 

The bonds, that unite children to their parents, are woven 
by the hands of God himself, and can never, by any stipula- 
tion or agreement between themselves, be put asunder. To 
them, under God, you owe your being, and the chiefest Of 
your earthly blessings. To them has he committed your sup- 
port, — your protection, — your guidance. They are God's 
vicegerents, in a little domestic kingdom over which he 



THE DUTY OF CHILDREN. 25 

has set them. They stand in the place of God himself to 
you. Next, therefore, to God himself, it is your duty to pay 
them a profound respect. 

You should ever labour to crush in the bud, the first 
tendencies of your hearts to light, unworthy, disrespectful 
thoughts of them, and to cherish for them, on the other 
hand, every dutiful, meek, and tender emotion. 

Your words to your parents should ever be tempered with 
humility and respect. However your own opinions may 
differ from those which they entertain, it is not for you to ad- 
vance them in the tone and manner of disputants. Both your 
language, and the mode in which you utter it, ought most 
unequivocally to evidence, that you are rather looking up to 
them for advice, than arguing with them as equals. 

Your whole deportment should evidence, that you feel the 
strength of that sacred connexion that binds you to the au- 
thors of your existence. Even should it be the case, that in 
after-life you rise to a higher level in the scale of society than 
that on which your parents stand, you are bound neverthe- 
less to render them the respectful deference they deserve; and 
never ought you to let them feel that change of circumstances 
or lapse of time, have, in the least degree, impaired your 
sense of the obligation you owe them ; or that you have for- 
gotten the days of inexperience and weakness, when the love 
and care of nursing father and nursing mother were so inex- 
pressibly valuable to you. 

How much may you learn in this matter from the exam 
pies of holy men of old, whose lives are recorded in Scrip 
ture ! They surely never seemed to forget, who had installed 
their parents into their office, and that the most marked re- 
spect should be paid to those, who occupied, in relation to 
themselves, a situation so elevated and responsible. How 



26 THE DUTY OF CHILDREN. 

beautiful was the deportment of Joseph towards his aged father, 
the humble sheep -master of Canaan, at the time when, as 
Pharaoh's prime minister of state, he swayed the sceptre of 
supreme authority in Egypt ! You read, that when Israel was 
on his way to visit his illustrious son, Joseph dutifully went 
forth to meet him in his chariot of state, " and presented him- 
self to him, and fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good 
while." — Gen. xlvi., 29. Observe, again, the conduct of 
Moses, when he went out to meet his father-in-law. He " did 
obeisance, and kissed him." — Exod. xviii., 7. Look, again? 
at the singular respect paid by King Solomon to his mother, 
Bath-sheba, when she came into his presence to intercede for 
Adonijah. " The king rose up to meet her, and bowed him- 
self unto her, and sat down on his throne, and caused a seat 
to be set for the king's mother, and she sat on his right 
hand."— 1 Kings, ii., 19. Give, then, dear young people, 
to your parents, the obedience of veneration, — esteeming them 
very highly in honour, because God hath made them what 
they are. 

2. But let your veneration for them at the same time be 
tempered with love. There can be no true or sustained 
obedience without love. We cannot obey God till we love 
him. The mere letter of the commandment, although sup- 
ported by the most solemn sanctions, so far from securing 
our obedience, rather urges us to a greater rebellion, and 
drives our sinful wills to a farther distance from Him, from 
whom, by nature, we are so widely alienated. 

But when, through the medium of a true and living faith, 
we see Him, as God, reconciling sinners to himself in Christ, 
— doing all, — sacrificing all for our souls' salvation, — then 
are we drawn by the cords of a filial affection towards him, and 
we strive to stand perfect and complete in all His blessed will- 



THE DUTY OF CHILDREN. 27 

And so, young people, a mere sense of duty will not be suf- 
ficient to secure your obedience to your earthly parents. You 
must love them. They will not be content with less than 
your love. And is this a hard requirement ? Is it a difficult 
duty, when you consider how much you owe them ? Will 
you ever be able to understand what have been a father's 
anxiety and a mother's tender yearnings for you? Will you 
ever, in this life, know how often their sleepless pillow has 
been wetted with their tears on your account ? what pangs 
they have experienced when they have seen you in suffering 
and pain ? what alarms they have felt in the prospect of your 
being launched upon the numerous and powerful temptations 
of the world ? and how earnestly and frequently their prayers 
have gone up for the Divine protection upon your head, and 
for the Divine influences in your heart, to fortify you against 
the assaults of Satan, and of wicked men ? O, did you, but 
each of you, know how anxiously you have been watched 
over and nursed in the hour of sickness, and what trials, har- 
assing cares, and persevering labours have been sustained 
for your advantage and support, you would not fail to look up 
and cling to your parents as the most faithful, affectionate, and 
unwearied of friends. Yes, they stand highest in the list of 
benefactors to you. St. Paul, in his 1st Epistle to Tim., ch. v., 
ver. 4, lays it down as a first duty on the part of children, that 
' 6 they learn to shew piety at home, and to requite their pa- 
rents." It is your duty, therefore, dear children, to render 
to your parents, in token of your grateful affection, those in- 
numerable acts of kindness, and gentle offices of love, which 
it is in your power daily to perform, and which cannot but 
afford them the purest delight as coming from their children's 
hands. 

And, as they go down the vale of life, your attentions should 



28 THE DUTY OF CHILDREN. 

become still more unremitting. Diligently strive to lighten 
the burdens which long years have heaped upon them, by 
your gentleness and care. Let them scarcely feel that old 
age has arrived, that infirmities are multiplying, and memory 
is failing ; exert yourselves to the utmost to nurse and soothe 
their pain and sickness, and endeavour by your pious con- 
versation and cheerful society to calm, sanctify, and brighten 
the evening of their days. 

It is true, that, as time advances, your circumstances may 
become materially changed, and with them, in several re- 
spects, your duties. You will yourselves, it may be, in your 
own turn become heads of families, and be invested with all 
the authority and rights, which are now due to your parents. 

But, will you then be inclined to forget the relation in 
which you stand to them, although you will, necessarily, be 
released from many of its duties ? I think not ! When you 
yourselves are parents, you will perhaps know for the first time, 
what parents are, and what parents feel. You will then have 
learnt, in your own experience, what are those anxieties, and 
watchings, and sorrows, which they so cheerfully undergo for 
their childrens' sake ! why it is that they can follow their off- 
spring from the cradle to the grave, with an affection which 
no labour can weary, nor ingratitude dissolve ! — Why Hagar 
could give to her Ishmael the last precious drop in her cruse 
on the burning sands of the wilderness, when death was 
staring her in the face. — Why Jacob's heavy head was bowed 
in inconsolable sorrow, at the loss of his Joseph. — And why, 
even the rebellion of Absalom could not extinguish the affec- 
tion of David ; but the royal father, when the thousands of 
Israel were rending the air with acclamations upon the death 
of the usurper, wept day and night in the chamber over the 
gate, and cried, Would to God that I had died for thee, O 



THE DUTY OF CHILDREN. 29 

Absalom, my son, my son." Yes, you will then feel, more 
vividly than ever, the great debt you owe to your parents ; and 
although your time will necessarily be occupied by other not 
less important duties, you will give them every opportunity 
you can spare, and afford them all the consolation in your 
power. 

And there are one or two ways in which you may most 
effectually evince your esteem for your parents, and requite 
their love, even to the end of your days. 

ThePsalmist, (inthecxxvii. Psalm) in enumerating the bless- 
ings which belong to large families of children, lays some stress 
on this, that " their parents shall not be ashamed when they 
speak with their enemies in the gate," by which we learn (as 
Bishop Home remarks) that " the parent who hath a houseful 
of dutiful children will never want friends, — friends who will 
never be ashamed to appear for him, to withstand his accusers, 
to answer any charge against him, and to vindicate him in 
his person, his good name, or his property ;" and he adds, 
"it is a glorious sight to behold children thus standing forth 
in defence of their parents." 

Never, dear young people, refuse to repel the ungenerous 
attack, if ever it be your painful lot to hear your parents 
spoken ill of. Vindicate them before men at all hazards, so 
far as you are able to do so with a good conscience ; and, 
although you may be inwardly aware of their faults and weak- 
nesses, yet cast over their infirmities a veil of the deepest 
secresy and silence. Never betray them — -never expose them 
to a merciless world. 

On the other hand, take every fair and judicious opportu- 
nity of mentioning those good qualities in private life, for 
which you know them to be distinguished, and of which, all 
will allow, none can be such competent judges as yourselves. 



30 THE DUTY OF CHILDREN. 

It is, however, by your characters, — by your purity, your 
holiness, your charity, — you can most effectually discharge 
this duty. Honour them by your lives. Wherever you go, 
let the remembrance of their love animate you to exertion, 
and support you in temptation. If no other motive can excite 
you to distinguish yourselves, in your several professions, 
let it be this, that you will thereby cheer and warm a father's 
bosom, in his declining years. If you are prompted to do 
an evil, unjust, or dishonourable action, remember that there 
is a tender mother at home, whose heart you will tear with 
anguish ; take pity upon them, even if you care not for your 
own welfare. You cannot be eminent without casting some 
of the rays of your distinction upon your parents. You cannot 
sink into disgrace without involving them in the same cloud of 
shame. And though they may have left this life, who shall 
say, whether your spiritual character will not materially affect 
their condition in the final state ; and whether at the Gate of 
the last Judgment it will not be of immense importance to them 
to have you at their side, to be a visible and unanswerable 
evidence of their faithful parental training, and so to be 
their "joy and crown throughout eternity." 

3. Once more, you are to render to your parents the obe- 
dience of submission. It is this branch of filial duty to which 
reference is especially made in the text, — " Children, obey 
your parents in all things.' 5 It seems to be almost unneces- 
sary to touch upon this point after what has been said ; for if 
your thoughts as children at all correspond to those which I 
have been recommending, your conduct cannot fail to be pro- 
portionably dutiful and obedient. And yet a word of coun- 
sel on this head, may not be unacceptable in some cases, 
even to those who are enabled to cherish towards their 
parents the tenderest affection. 



THE DUTY OF CHILDREN. ul 

The children of positively sinful parents have, in this re- 
spect, a delicate and highly painful duty to perforin. The 
sight presented to them, day after day, of the ungodliness of 
those who ought rather to be their guides and examples in all 
holiness, is beyond measure distressing. If I address a child, 
whose eyes have been opened to perceive the melancholy fact 
of the utter irreligion of their parents, I would counsel him to 
make their case the burden of his unceasing prayers before 
God, and, at the same time, to present before them, at every 
turn of life, the beauty of Christian holiness, and of a consist- 
ent religious character. You mav. indeed, sometimes be 
placed in such circumstances as to feel that you are com- 
pelled to do violence to your natural disposition, and to 
act in opposition to your parents' will, remembering the 
words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, " He that loveth his 
father and mother more than me, is not worthy of me." But, 
except when an earthly parent's commands positively militate 
against those of your Heavenly Father, I pray you bear in 
mind, that the Gospel demands that they should be willingly 
and cheerfully obeyed. " Children, obey your parents in all 
things. 1 ' 

0, let no perversity of temper on the part of the holy child, 
no approach to moroseness, to sullenness, or overbearing, 
supercilious conduct stain his Christian profession, andneutral- 
ise those blessed effects, which a truly consistent walk, con- 
ducted in all the meekness of heavenly wisdom, is calculated 
to produce. Wherever it can be done with a clear conscience, 
let there be the exact performance of every filial duty, with 
an affectionate and engaging obedience ; and when you dare 
not obey, let the mildness of Christian love soften every 
refusal, and tincture every remonstrance. 

II. — I would now, in the second place, enforce the faithful 



32 THE DUTY OF CHILDREN. 

performance of the duties of which a brief summary has been 
given, by the important consideration annexed to them in the 
text : " Children, obey your parents in all things ; for this is 
wellpleasing unto the Lord. 

The apostle, in a parallel passage (Eph., vi. 1), seems to take 
much lower ground, when he enjoins filial obedience simply 
because such conduct is "right" ; and yet, upon consideration, 
the reason he there assigns for its exercise ought to carry with 
it all the weight of conviction apart from higher motives. 

He would seem to say, that upon the common principles of 
justice and honour, such conduct ought to be manifested. And 
surely it is but a fair and proper repayment of that fine 
care which has screened a human being from the perils of 
infant life, and has nursed him up to the perfection of his 
reason, and the full vigour of his strength. All mankind 
seem to be agreed here. All acknowledge the claim to be 
unquestionable and just — and all, even the most ignorant and 
debased, unite in branding the character of the undutiful 
child with odiousness and infamy. " It is right," moreover, 
because it is of such essential importance to the wellbeing 
and tranquillity of the community at large. The law threatens, 
and the magistrate executes. But vain would be the menaces 
of the law — and vain the sword of the magistrate, if the parent 
were not to administer a wholesome restraint in the early stages 
of life. Hence, in exact proportion, as this great virtue of filial 
obedience is engrafted into the manners of any people, in the 
same proportion will good order and harmony prevail, and 
every social blessing be scattered over the land. 

But there are higher sanctions and more powerful incite- 
ments connected with the duty than these. It is "wellpleasing 
to the Lord.'' However strongly we may reprobate the un- 
dutiful conduct of children, how far more severely does God 



THE DUTY OF CHILDREN. 33 

condemn it ! How fearful a penalty do we find annexed to 
this sin in the divine code of the Mosaic law! "If a man 
have a stubborn and rebellious son," (saith Moses, in xxi. 
chap, of the book of Deuteronomy, 18th verse) which will 
not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, 
and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken 
unto them: then shall his father and his mother lay hold on 
him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto 
the gate of his place, and all the men of the city shall stone him 
with stones, that he die." See this sin again (in the xxviith 
chap, of the same book, 16th verse) ranging amongst the 
most deadly and revolting of crimes. " Cursed be he that 
setteth light by his father or mother; and all the people shall 
say, Amen." The words of Agur (in the xxxth chap, of the 
Book of Proverbs, and the 17th verse) breathe the same 
spirit of holy abhorrence of this crime. " The eye that mocketh 
at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens 
of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat 
it," 

It is true that these solemn threatenings were uttered under 
a dispensation of peculiar severity : nevertheless they serve 
to show us, in the most convincing manner, in what light 
filial disobedience is regarded by the Judge of all the earth ; 
and how fearfully he will vindicate the insulted rights of 
parents, in that great day when he will "lay judgment to the 
line and righteousness to the plummet." On the other hand, 
how abundant are the proofs that he has annexed an especial 
blessing to the dutiful conduct of children ! St. Paul, when 
enjoining such conduct upon the younger members of the 
Church at Ephesus, calls their attention to the striking fact, that 
the fifth is the first of the commandments, to which is attached a 
promise, and he accordingly urges them to obey it on this very 

D 



34 THE DUTY OF CHILDREN, 

ground, even "that it might be well with them, and that they 
might live long on the earth." Hence, we are encouraged to 
expect, that no small measure of earthly happiness and secular 
prosperity will be the recompense of a course of filial piety 
in every nation, and unto the remotest ages of the world. 

In confirmation of this important fact, I would bid you, 
my young hearers, consider well the remarkable contrast 
which is drawn in the Scriptures between the lives and death, 
of undutiful and dutiful children. See Ham cursed ! — Esau 
unblest, notwithstanding his bitter tears. — The sons of Aaron 
and the sons of Eli, miserably cut off. — Absalom, the beautiful 
and popular Absalom suspended on a tree and transfixed with 
darts. — Adonijah,the usurper, also shamefully slain ! Look, on 
the other hand, at the singular prosperity and longevity of the 
Patriarchs, all of whom were remarkable for nothing more 
than their veneration of their parents ; — and above all, at that 
especial putting forth of the divine power for the preservation, 
even unto this very day, of a family in the east, on account 
of their religious observance of a duty laid on them by the 
founder of their race, and handed down from father to 
son. 

" Because ye have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab 
your father, and kept all his precepts, and done all that he 
commanded you," saith the prophet Jeremiah, inch.xxxv. 18th 
and 19th verses, to the Rechabites, " Therefore thus saith the 
Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Jonadab the son of Rechab, 
shall not want a man to stand before me for ever."* 



* Dr. Wolff states that the Jews of Jerusalem, and of Yeman, are still 
existing near Mecca. At Jalooka, in Mesopotamia, one was pointed out 
to him " dressed, and wild like an Arab, holding the bridle of his horse in 
his hand." 

He could read both Hebrew and Arabic, and rejoiced to see the Bible 



THE DUTY OF CHILDREN. 35 

Let then every person who hears me know that if he 
would " love life and see good days," it is indispensible that 
he be a dutiful and obedient child. 

The commandment may involve, what may seem to some a 
commonplace and obscure duty, and one which requires much 
patience and self-denial — but " in the keeping of it there is a 
great reward." 

I do not say that miracles will be wrought for its recompence, 
— that (as on Gideon's fleece) the dew of Divine blessing will 
descend on the possessions of those who observe it, while all 
around will be barrenness and want ; nor do I believe that in 
every case there will be an extraordinary lengthening out of the 
period of life ; but this I do assert, that there will be a special 
interposition of Divine Providence in numberless ways through 
life, known only to the individual himself, whereby he shall 
abundantly perceive that God is with him of a truth ; and that if 
it be obeyed from a religious motive, it will be followed up by 
a singular increase of spiritual peace and holiness, and a very 
high measure of glory in the mansions of our Father which 
is in heaven. 

Dear young people, we cannot, as the ministers of the Church, 
look upon you, except with the most intense interest. Upon 
you mainly depends the character of the age which is to 
succeed us. According as your future course shall be, will 
it be seen how far our labours have been successful or in 



in those languages. Dr. Wolff having asked whose descendant he was, 
he read Jeremiah xxxv. 5 — 11. He said, that his people resided in the 
deserts around Samar, Mecca, and Sanaa ; and added, " we drink no wine, 
and plant no vineyard, and sow no seed, and live in tents, as Jonadab. our 
father, commanded us. Hobab was our father too. Come to us, you will 
find 60,000 in number ; and you see thus the prophecy has been fulfilled : 
" Therefore, thus saith the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, Jonadab, the 
son of ftechab, shall not want a man to stand before me for ever." 

D 2 



36 THE DITTY OF CHILDREN. 

vain. Were you all walking in the path of godliness, our 
work would be comparatively at an end. You would rouse 
the careless, and encourage the timid, and decide the 
wavering, and provoke to jealousy those of riper years, 
shaming them into a concern for their souls. You would 
glorify God in your generation, and when you had passed to 
your reward, the mantle of your religious earnestness would 
descend upon your children, and be transmitted from father 
to son to remote generations. Yes, it rests with you whether 
a change shall come over the moral face of our country — 
whether the desert shall blossom and the wilderness rejoice. — 
Whether our Church shall enlarge her borders, or the wild 
boar, out of the forest, shall trample down her fair enclosure. 
Whether the light of righteousness and pure religious truth 
shall break forth on every side — or ungodliness, superstition, 
and infidelity, shall spread their dark shadows over the land. 

We cannot, therefore, but earnestly desire to see you, above 
all, standing forth in the character of true and consistent 
followers of Christ. Begin then at once to walk in the path 
of religious steadfastness ; but remember to begin, as our 
Lord himself began, by exhibiting from the first a spirit of 
submission and deference to your earthly parents. There is 
(as you well know) but one passage of our Saviour's youthful 
history recorded, but that single incident surely opens to you 
a whole volume full of interest and instruction. 

When you are impatient of doing the will of father or 
mother, think how that He whose " goings forth were from ever- 
lasting" was " subject to his parents," (as a child of their family) 
until he was thirty years of age ; and when you are weary 
of ministering to their wants and comforts, remember the 
Son of God was never weary of labouring for His; — nay, that 
He even forgot himself, that He might provide for His desolate 



THE DUTY OF CHILDREN. 37 

mother amid all the agonies of crucifixion. " Go," dear 
children, " and do likewise," remembering " that if any 
have not the Spirit of Christ they are none of His." 

But are there any here — children, I cannot call them, — who 
are frowardly despising a father's counsel and a mother's tears 
— it may be requiting all their tenderness, toil, and love, with 
mockery, ridicule, and contemptuous treatment? Are there any 
to whom the anxious efforts of the parents for their present 
and eternal welfare are irksome in the extreme ; and who, like 
Esau, are sighing for the hour when they shall escape from 
the restraint to which they are now subjected, and shall be 
able to launch forth into every guilty excess and worldly 
pleasure, without a voice to w T arn, or a hand to hold them 
back ? 

Be not so impatient to burst the wholesome rein which 
now checks your wayward course. It cannot be for long. 
The glistening eye which is so often turned towards you with 
tearful emotion, will soon be closed ; and the heart which you 
have so often wrung by your undutiful conduct, shall throb no 
more with bitter anguish and fearful forebodings. There will 
be no more tender expostulations — no more prayers — no more 
unavailing tears. The bosom, in which you were fondled shall 
become cold — the hands, that have caressed and nursed you, 
and toiled for your support, will be motionless in their last rest- 
ing-place. And all the parental affection and sedulity, now 
so distasteful to you, shall be at an end. But remember, 
there is a fearful re-action at hand. The time will come, when 
the remembrance of all the slighted love of your parents shall 
pierce your thoughts far more bitterly than your ingratitude 
has ever pierced them. Your thoughtless bosom must yet 
throb with bitter regrets, and you will ask in vain for the re- 
turn of one of those bygone days, in which you might have 



38 THE DUTY OF CHILDREN. 

been their pride and consolation, instead of a crushing load 
upon their hearts. And if this sad and overwhelming con- 
viction does not break in upon you in life, nor even plant your 
dying pillow with thorns, it will surely do its work as a 
sleepless, insatiable, worm, in the unseen world. There not 
one word of faithful remonstrance will be forgotten. There the 
Bible placed in your chamber — the prayer uttered by your 
infant lips — the words of counsel — the letters of expostula- 
tion, and all the nameless offices and acts of parental kind- 
ness, which have been extended to you — all, all will rise 
up from the grave of oblivion into which your ingratitude 
has cast them, to glare upon you in letters of flame ; and 
you will discover that all the efforts which have been made, and 
were meant, for your everlasting peace, have only deepened 
your everlasting woe, and added (because they were rejected) 
to the pangs of an ever-remorseful conscience. 

O ! if there be one in this congregation who has been a 
"heaviness" to his parents, a spot on their characters, and a 
blight upon their hopes, let me counsel him at once to seek re- 
conciliation with them, and to endeavour to make amends for 
the mis-spent past, before it be too late. Let me implore him, 
if he values his own peace, to proceed at once to staunch 
their bleeding hearts, and to cheer their few declining years 
by every penitent and affectionate attention. 

But if it be too late to take this step — if all that remains of 
father and mother is the dust and ashes of their tombs, and 
your grief is the more intense because it seems to be so in- 
effectual, remember there is mercy to be found at the hands 
of an all-gracious God. There is a Saviour, who is ready to 
cleanse away even this dark stain from your soul — who never 
did, and never will, reject any that come to him for acceptance 
and healing. 



THE DUTY OF CHILDREN. 39 

Repent and turn to Him. from this time forth — and though 
you can never forgive yourself, He will forgive ; — and of His 
abundant mercy bring you at last to the happy place where 
vour sainted parents are reposing in His bosom — and how 
great and endless will be their joy — and how will all their 
former sorrows on your account be more than overpaid, when 
at last they shall discover that their long-lost child has 
been numbered among the saints of God in glory everlasting ! 
and once more falling on your neck, they shall exclaim, " It 
is meet that we should make merry and be glad, for this our 
son was dead, and is alive again ; he was lost, and is found." 



€tt Wutu of J*tagtn% 



Sermon M$. 



THE DUTY OF MASTERS. 

Preached January 19, 1851. 



Ephesians, vi. 9. " And ye, masters, do the same things unto them, 
forbearing threatening : knowing that your Master also is in heaven ; 
neither is there respect of persons with him." 

In the exercise of the sacred office, which has been entrusted 
to him, it is plainly incumbent on the minister of Christ to 
apply his instructions to the proper individualities of his 
people — to regard them severally as having a distinct and 
separate claim upon his pastoral care — and to offer them that 
specific instruction, and to enforce those peculiar duties? 
which it is needful for them to be acquainted with, and to 
practise, in the various states of life, unto which it hath pleased 
God to call them. 

But, while it is thus essential, that he who would thus dis- 
charge his spiritual stewardship with fidelity, should give to all 
of those committed to his care their several "portions in due 
season" — acquainting himself with their various wants and 
respective difficulties, and seizing on such opportunities, as 
may occur, for the special improvement of their obligations — 
he ought not to forget, that the talents committed, and the 
sphere of influence assigned, to the various individuals com- 



44 THE DUTY OF MASTERS. 

posing his flock vary very greatly ; and that while there are 
none without considerable means of glorifying God in their 
generation— there are some whose opportunities of doing so 
are pre-eminently great, and who, consequently, above all, 
stand in need of his most faithful counsels, and anxious pas- 
toral supervision ; since, if the precious trust confided to them 
shall perish in their hands, not only will they themselves be 
visited with a penalty proportionably severe, but many around 
them will necessarily be involved with them in the same 
dreadful doom. 

Of this class, obviously, are those who have been placed 
by Divine Providence in the responsible position of Masters 
of families — and therefore, in pursuing the course of instruc- 
tion which I am addressing to you upon your several domestic 
duties — I hasten to put them in remembrance of their high 
and peculiar obligations — and to exhort them to a wise and 
conscientious government of those establishments, which in 
the providence of God have been placed under their care. 

And the method I propose to adopt in fulfilling this im- 
portant duty, is that, which is furnished to my hand by the 
Apostle in the text, — namely, first to unfold the fundamental 
principle which ought to animate and pervade all their con- 
duct towards their dependents — and then (having grasped 
that principle) to exhibit its proper actings in some of the 
more prominent ramifications of their daily practice. 

I. — The principle which is to guide us in the regulation of 
the concerns of our respective households, and in the dis- 
charge of our duties as Masters of families — we learn from 
these words, is to be precisely that, which in the preceding 
verses the Apostle has prescribed, as the foundation on which 
the conduct of our servants towards ourselves is to be based. 
He earnestly exhorts Christian servants, in that passage, to 



THE DUTY OF MASTERS. 45 

be diligent, sincere, and obedient. But observe, I pray you, 
that he does not urge them to exhibit the rigid fidelity he 
requires of them, upon the ground that the respect and 
favour of their employers would thereby be secured ; and 
thus their own secular interests and present comfort would be 
advanced — on the contrary, he earnestly warns them against 
the operation in their minds of any such low, commonplace, 
and mercenary motives. " Be obedient to your masters accord- 
ing to the flesh," (he writes to the Christian servants at 
Ephesus) with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, 
as unto Christ ; not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers ; but as 
the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; 
with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men : 
knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same 
shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free." 

Turning, then, to their employers, he adds, " And ye, mas- 
ters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening, 
knowing that your Master also is in heaven, neither is there 
respect of persons with him." 

Here, therefore, we are clearly taught that both in the one 
relation and the other, there must lie at the root of all our 
reciprocal duties and mutual offices, a religious and Christian 
principle— the operation of that realising, conscientious sense 
and fear of God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
which constitutes the very essence and being of a saving faith 
— and that without this, as there can be no true or acceptable 
obedience in the Servant, so there can be no faithful, efficient, 
and unreproveable exercise of authority in the Master. 

I should, indeed, at once turn away from the task which I 
have proposed to myself, of endeavouring to instruct more 
perfectly in the mode of regulating their households, those 
who are masters in this influential parish, did I suppose it 



46 THE DUTY OF MASTERS. 

possible, that they were, as a class, living themselves wholly 
devoid of all fear of God, and faith in Christ. For how, as 
the Apostle here seems to teach, can it be expected, that those 
will rule their households well, who are not themselves con- 
sciously under subjection to Christ ? — how can those ex- 
hibit that mingled forbearance, fidelity, and vigilance which 
are required of them in God's word, unless they are living 
under the vivid impression that they themselves are servants on 
their trial for eternity, and must, sooner or later, give up an 
account before the bar of a holy and all impartial Judge ? 

Supposing, however, that you are in some degree alive to 
the value of that first and greatest trust, which has been com- 
mitted to you, even the stewardship of the grace of God, and 
the possession of those rich and inestimable privileges, which 
have been made over to you in the covenant of the Gospel, 
and visibly signed and sealed in the sacrament of your bap- 
tism, I would proceed to remind you that your Christianity is 
not to be confined to your secret chamber, or the walls of the 
sanctuary, but it is to pervade all your actions, and to influ- 
ence your whole character. 

It must go with you into your daily occupations, your 
offices of business, and the circles of society in which 
you move. It must characterize and elevate your deal- 
ings with one another. It must control your expendi- 
ture, and, asserting the presidency at your tables, it must regu- 
late your appetites, and keep the door of your lips, so that 
" whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever you do, you shall do 
all to the glory of God." And the reason why your Christ- 
ianity is to possess this luminous and all-pervading character, 
is because some influence must ever be issuing from you, even 
in the minutest things, which will be prejudicial or salutary, 
according to your principles and motives of action. And if 



THE DUTY OF MASTERS. 47 

this be so, surely it is, above all things, necessary that this 
principle should actuate you in the management of your ser_ 
vants, since common reflection and common experience abun- 
dantly teach us, that their well-being is most vitally affected 
by the superintendence and example of those who govern 
them. 

It is, obviously, greatly in your own power to influence 
them for their eternal profit, and this influence is a talent for 
which you must finally answer, either with peace and satis- 
faction, or with shame and confusion of face. 

Strive, then, that your personal religion shall diffuse itself 
throughout your respective dwellings. Let it be your con- 
stant aim to become a centre of holy light, irradiating the 
whole circle of the little domestic system, that moves around 
you. 

And, believe me, there is no effectual means of securing a 
peaceful, well-ordered household, but this. The Divine laws, 
by which you yourselves habitually shape your conduct, will 
not fail, in a great degree, to promote the goodness and com- 
fort of those you govern. If " the grace of God has taught 
you to deny ungodliness," and to restrain your pride and 
passion — this will be a guarantee for your acting with equity 
and humanity to all beneath you — while there shall issue such 
a power from your consistent example as will not fail to 
attract the well-disposed to the imitation of your character, 
and at the same time operate as an effectual check to the 
unruly. 

II. — Such is the principle which must be in operation in 
the bosom of every master, if he would govern his house with 
efficiency, and yield up his account with joy, at the last day. 
I would now (as proposed) follow it into some of its most 
necessary and important actings. 



48 THE DUTY OF MASTERS. 

1. — And, first, I would call upon every head of a family, in 
whom the Truth has found any place, that he himself has 
" a Master in Heaven, who is no respecter of persons," to 
conduct himself towards his servants in a spirit of strict and 
conscientious integrity. 

In the foregoing passage, in which the dispositions and 
duties, required of servants, are described, this spirit forms a 
very prominent feature. 

Servants are required to render obedience to their employ- 
ers " with fear and trembling" ; and, in another place, they are 
enjoined to " show all good fidelity, that they may adorn the 
doctrine of God our Saviour in all things." And masters are 
exhorted to " do the same things to them," and to " give them" 
(as the Apostle writes in the ivth chapter of the Epistle to the 
Colossians, and the 1st verse) "that which is just and equal." 
There must, therefore, be fair dealing on both sides, — faithful 
service on the part of the servant, and a just compensation 
on the part of the master. 

I need not say that this precept strikes at once to the root of 
the system of slavery, which existed to so great an extent in 
the days in which the Apostle wrote — but which is obviously 
wholly incompatible with the rule laid down for the direction 
of Christian masters, that they are to do to their dependents 
as they themselves would be done by, and to render to them 
that which is "just and equal." 

It is the glory of this nation, that she has banished every 
trace of this inhuman system from even the remotest limits of 
her mighty empire. The genius of Christianity has invaded 
all its strongest holds, and opened the door of the prison- 
house, and let every captive go free. 

But, bear with me, if I assert that the Christian considera- 
tion, and the fair and equitable compensation so stringently 



THE DUTY OF MASTERS. 49 

required of masters, are far from being universally accorded to 
servants by their employers, even in this enlightened land. 

That love of gain, the root of all evil, which is our national 
besetting sin, it is to be feared, in many ways, and to a great 
extent, counterbalances and overmasters that love of justice 
and fair dealing, upon which we are, as a people, so inclined 
to pride ourselves. 

For, how many have amassed, and are still amassing, large 
fortunes, so to speak out of the very miseries and privations 
of the operative classes — the excessive competition arising 
from an overgrown population, enabling them to carry on 
their various trades, and to accomplish the most elaborate 
works at a fearfully cheap outlay ! 

! it would be well if the heads of the great houses of 
business in our land would consider, how far they are acting 
upon the precept, that they give to those who labour for them 
" that which is just and equal," — and whether there is no- 
thing alarming in the fact, which obtrudes itself so promi- 
nently upon our notice, that while the few who occupy these 
important positions are heaping up wealth with unexampled 
rapidity, the many, by whose incessant toil this high stan- 
dard of prosperity is maintained, are still in a condition of 
comparative penury, if they are not actually sinking, day by 
day, to a lower level of moral and physical degradation. 

1 do not, however, believe that our domestic servants have, 
as a body, any reason to complain on this ground. 

Instances of oppression and revolting cruelty have, indeed, 
from time to time, been dragged forth to the light of day, but 
the universal cry of reprobation, with which they have always 
been assailed, seems to prove that the cruel treatment of 
household servants is a crime of rare occurrence, and can 
never be carried on to any extent, with impunity, in this land. 

E 



50 THE DUTY OF MASTERS. 

Nevertheless there is another, and a still more important 
sense in which the heads of families do, to a very great ex- 
tent, deprive their servants of what is fair and equal. 

You may remunerate, and support them liberally, — and yet 
you may withhold from them that which is quite as much 
their due as wages and subsistence. 

I mean, a fair and proper allowance of time for reflection, 
for self-examination, and for attending at the house of God 
among the assembled congregation. 

They are rational and immortal beings, made of the same 
blood, redeemed by the same Saviour, partakers of the same 
holy calling, and candidates for the same crown, as your- 
selves. If, therefore, you task their bodies and distract their 
minds, so as to render it impossible for them to attend to the 
concerns of a higher and better state, you are plainly depriv- 
ing them of what is far dearer importance than temporal sup- 
port and aliment — you are starving the life of their souls. 

He, who knoweth what is in man, and is most intimately 
acquainted with the springs of our bodily and mental action, 
has provided one day out of the seven, for their temporal and 
eternal advantage. But how large a proportion of this 
numerous and important class knows nothing of its refreshing 
and sanctifying rest ! 

The sabbath dawns, but it brings to our domestic servants 
in too many cases, no cessation of toil. 

The doors of the sanctuary are opened, but this class, scarcely 
appears among the throng of the assembled worshippers. 

How, indeed, can it be otherwise ? — The late hours, at 
which the families of the middle and upper classes are wont 
to rise on this day, arising often from the protracted dissipa- 
tion of the previous night — the extravagant attention which 
is paid to personal appearance and dress — the more than or- 



THE DUTY OF MASTERS. 51 

dinary cost and care, which are lavished in making prepara- 
tion for the family meal — throw insuperable impediments in 
the way of the attendance of their domestics at the House of 
God — or, if they do manage to come, render them, through 
fatigue and distraction, altogether unfitted for a serious and 
profitable participation in its sacred exercises. 

I would hope, that the once almost universal custom of 
making this a day of especial festivity, has fallen into entire 
disuse — and, that Sunday entertainments having become 
almost unknown things, the households of the rich of our 
day have far more facility for hallowing and enjoying their 
day of rest than those of preceding generations. 

There nevertheless exist many hindrances to the full im- 
provement of this merciful season, by servants, which need to 
be taken away. 

The habit which still, I fear, prevails to a large extent, 
judging from the appearance of our streets (especially during 
the spring and summer months), of making this a day of 
visiting, of taking fashionable drives, or even making excur- 
sions into the country, is one which lays those, who practise 
it under the heaviest responsibility — for, apart from the irre- 
ligious and thoughtless tone of mind which it indicates, and 
cannot fail to deepen in their own bosoms, it surely most 
effectually shuts out their attendants from all profitable en- 
joyment of the Sabbath, — at least it furnishes to them a 
plausible excuse for neglecting its sacred duties. 

Let me pray you then, if you would acquit yourselves be- 
fore God, when required to render up to Him the important 
talent of domestic authority, to remove from your domestics 
every employment which shall directly or indirectly interfere 
with their making due improvement of that day, which is 
peculiarly their own. 

E 2 



52 THE DUTY OF MASTERS. 

2. — But more than affording the opportunity of spiritual im- 
provement to their servants, is clearly the part of those mas- 
ters who would live and act as under the eye of God. 

A large proportion of your domestics come to you at a com- 
paratively tender age. The straitened circumstances of the 
poor compel them to send their children into the world, to 
grapple with its trials and temptations, almost before they 
know what trials and temptations mean. 

They come to you at this critical period, in the providence 
of God, with their principles unformed, and their minds un- 
instructed — so that the whole character of their future lives, 
and final destiny, seem to hinge upon your influence and 
authority — upon the care you take of them, and the exam- 
ples you set before them. 

It is plainly therefore a duty, for which you are responsi- 
ble to God, not merely to avoid leading them into sin, but to 
exert your influence to bring them to Him, and to encourage 
them in the paths of righteousness. 

The most obvious of the direct methods of influencing your 
servants for their good, is that of instruction and advice. 

It is common to hear them, complained, of on the ground of 
their want of truth, disinterestedness, and honesty ; but does 
not this too commonly arise from ignorance ? Is not the low 
tone of the conventional morality, which obtains among them, 
to be traced up to their lamentable misapprehension even of 
the first principles of our faith? 

If this be so, surely every opportunity should be seized 
upon by the faithful master, of instructing his servants, both 
collectively and in private, upon the things that belong to 
their eternal peace. 

There are many little incidents daily occurring, which may 
enable the master, and especially the mistress, of a family to 



THE DUTY OF MASTERS. 53 

teach them to act on Christian principles, and these should 
be carefully improved. 

But the best and most favourable method of inculcating 
upon them the great truths and practical duties of our reli- 
gion, is by the regular practice of family prayer. 

This duty — while it is but a due and reasonable act of 
homage to our common Lord, gives a kind of reality as it 
were to religion, and introduces it in a tangible form into our 
circle — and in the light of exerting a wholesome influence 
over our dependants, it cannot be too highly estimated. 

It is something gained, to instil into them the habit of ap- 
proaching the footstool of God morning by morning, and 
evening by evening. 

Some degree of solemn and religious feeling cannot but be 
excited and left on the minds of all, who engage in these 
stated exercises — while their hearts will be knit together by 
another, and that a no feeble tie — and the blessing of God will 
descend and be felt, in the prevalence of that harmony and 
peace, which are the inseparable results of holy living. 

Let me call upon all, who are heads and masters of families, 
who have hitherto neglected this important practice, to lose 
no time in introducing it. 

At once, like Abraham, set up the altar in your dwellings. 
Like Cornelius, " Fear the Lord and pray to God always with 
your households." With Joshua, let your determination from 
this day be, " As for me and my house we will serve the 
Lord." 

Some perhaps will allege, in excuse for their neglect of this 
duty, that they have no time — that however important they ac- 
knowledge the practice to be, as a check to sin and immorality, 
as well as a proper acknowledgement to be paid to the 
Almighty master, whom they profess to serve — they cannot, 



54 THE DUTY OF MASTERS. 

on account of their own peculiar avocations, and of the number 
and various occupations of their households, possibly adopt 
it. 

Let them however bring this excuse to the Bible, and see 
upon how shadowy a foundation it stands. 

Abraham " had flocks and herds exceeding many, and very 
much cattle," and yet he found time. Job had vast possessions, 
yet he was wont to rise up early in the morning to offer 
sacrifices on behalf of his family. Joshua was the leader 
and commander of all the hosts of Israel, yet "he served the 
Lord with his house." And even when David occupied a 
throne, and had the administration of a mighty government 
pressing constantly upon his mind, he retired, as we read, 
from other more public duties " to bless his house." The 
numerous and urgent calls upon the time of these holy men 
did not prevent their attending to the training and spiritual 
instruction of their private circles. 

Are your secular duties then of so momentous a nature as 
to warrant you in laying aside a practice, which they saw to 
be so essential ? 

If it indeed be the case, that you are so overwhelmed and 
oppressed with earthly anxieties, is there not the greater need 
of your using some means, such as that, which we are 
advocating, that you may moderate their depressing and 
benumbing influence upon your own hearts, as well as on 
those of your families. 

But can you honestly assert that you have no leisure ? 
Have you none for amusement? none for light reading ? none 
for receiving and visiting your friends ? 

Will you then be able to plead before God in justification 
of your neglect — that you could not parcel out your own 
employments, as well as those of your servants, as to leave 



THE DUTY OF MASTERS. 55 

you a quarter of an hour morning and evening, for conducting 
the worship of God with your households ? 

Surely all these difficulties will vanish before common 
Christian sincerity and truth. Make the attempt in faith, 
and whatever obstacles now obstruct you, at the threshhold, 
will give way as you advance ; and you will, I do not hesitate 
to say, have abundant reason, both in time and eternity, to 
bless the day, when first you set up the family altar within 
your dwellings. 

3. — Once more, and lastly, let me charge you, if you would 
deal faithfully by your servants, to counsel and restrain them 
when you see them inclined to depart from the paths of 
propriety and righteousness. 

You remember David's holy resolution, as expressed in 
Psalm ci. " Mine eyes shall be on the faithful of the land, 
that they may dwell therein. He that walketh in a perfect 
way, he shall serve me. He that worketh deceit shall not 
dwell within my house. He that telleth lies shall not tarry 
in my sight." 

In the steadfast and uncompromising spirit of this faithful 
king and master, endeavour to purge out all vice and im- 
morality from your households. 

It is your duty to prohibit your servants from keeping evil 
company, from introducing licentious books, infidel publica- 
tions, and materials for gambling, within your doors — from being 
absent from your houses at improper hours — and should the 
wholesome rules you may think fit to lay down for the regula- 
tion of your establishments be wilfully set at defiance by any 
individual, — for the sake of example, and lest the rest should 
be contaminated, it will be incumbent on you (however painful 
to your feelings) to banish the offender from your dwelling. 

It will however be your endeavour, if you are faithful to 



56 THE DUTY OF MASTERS. 

your stewardship, mercifully to check sin in your servants, 
long before it shall have broken forth into flagrant and habitual 
transgression. 

You may learn the bent and direction of their characters 
from many unmistakeable outward signs. Dress, for example, 
in your female servants, on this account requires your close 
and watchful attention. 

The desire which pervades all orders of the community to 
be something greater and finer than the preceding generation, 
and to outvie in appearance all their equals, instead of resting 
quietly and contentedly in their respective spheres, has shown 
itself no where more conspicuously than among this portion 
of the inmates of our houses. Point out, then, to such of them 
as you see inclined to imitate the dress and manners of their 
superiors, the dangerous tendency of such petty and frivolous 
vanity — and especially, of how much of sin and of suffering 
it is the immediate cause. Show them how far more respect- 
able — how far more safe — how far more in accordance with 
the spirit and precepts of the Gospel it is, for persons to remain 
in the position in which Providence has placed them — and 
how far wiser it would be for them to lay up against that evil 
day, which all who live long enough must meet — the sums they 
are so lavishly squandering in the decoration of their persons. 

But in the exercise of a wise and faithful supervision over 
your servants, be considerate as well as firm. 

" Forbearing threatening, knowing that your master also 
is in heaven," is the Apostle's brief but expressive description 
of the disposition, which should animate you in all your inter- 
course and dealings with your dependants. 

There are those, who think that, to be always finding fault is 
the very essence of good domestic management ; but let it be 
your aim to show that honest and faithful endeavours to give 



THE DUTY OF MASTERS. 



57 



satisfaction are not made in vain ; and that you can bear with 
serenity occasional failures, when those failures are certainly 
not intentional. 

We ought to weigh faults as they are in themselves, and not 
as they are in their consequences. We ought to consider the 
moral nature of the action, that causes us annoyance, not the 
personal inconvenience, which it may occasion to ourselves. 

Errors may sometimes occur even through an anxiety to 
please, and very commonly they are the result of timidity and 
inexperience. A wise and thoughtful Christian master will 
discriminate between such faults and those which are wilful, 
and will thus often encourage and cheer, when many less 
considerate would be inclined only to condemn. 

And there are seasons in which that law of Christian love 
which requires that we should all "bear one another's 
burdens," will urge you to be especially considerate and kind 
towards your servants. 

Sickness, to which all are liable, and which we all so 
greatly deprecate, you will recollect is doubly distressing to 
those who gain their livelihood by their daily labour ; you 
will therefore strive, by making such arrangements, and by 
engaging such additional helps to meet the increased pressure 
— to tranquillize and soothe the mind of the sufferer, as well as 
endeavour by the best medical appliances to restore him 
to that health which is his most valuable earthly possession. 

And in the season of advanced old age and declining 
strength, you will not forget the debt of gratitude you owe 
to any who have long and faithfully served you — you will not 
find it in your heart to turn your back upon them when their 
strength is failing — when you reflect that, through many a 
weary year, they have devoted that strength to your service 
and for your comfort. 



58 THE DUTY OF MASTERS. 

It is then, when your long tried and valued servant is fast 
approaching that state " where the weary are at rest," and 
where those who have been faithful unto Christ, in their various 
stations, will receive a crown of life — it is then, that you will 
vividly feel, (and the persuasion will excite you, to increased 
tenderness and care) — that all the civil and conventional 
distinctions, which now separate man and man, are soon to 
cease — yea! that in the presence of Him, with whom "there 
is no respect of persons," many will be found first who are 
now last, and last who are now first. 

I might place before you many instructive examples in 
Scripture of the spirit I am endeavouring to inculcate. With 
what esteem and affection must Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, 
have been regarded, when at her interment such lamentations 
were uttered over her remains, that the oak, which oversha- 
dowed her grave ever after bore the name of the oak of weep- 
ing ! — Gen. xxxv. 8. 

What a spirit of holy and affectionate intimacy seems to 
have subsisted between Boaz and his servants, when we 
read, " Behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said unto 
the reapers, The Lord be with you. And they answered him, 
The Lord bless thee." — Ruth ii. 4. What a pattern to 
masters does the pious Centurion present, who sought with 
so much pains the merciful interposition of Jesus on behalf 
of the sick servant whom he loved. — Luke vii. 2. And how 
are we instructed to forget all former delinquencies upon the 
appearance of true repentence in our offending servants (as 
well as to esteem highly and honour those who are consistent 
followers of Christ), when we find Saint Paul beseeching 
Philemon to receive back into his confidence his unprofitable 
and probably his runaway slave, Onesimus, and to regard 
him now that he had become a convert to the Saviour, " not 



THE DUTY OF MASTERS. 59 

as a servant, but above a servant, even a brother beloved." — 
Phil. 16. 

And yet I would charge you to look higher than to any 
earthly model however worthy of imitation. Consider Him 
who is your " Master in heaven," and shape your domestic 
conduct by his holy example. 

You will find in his intercourse with, and government of, 
his little household of faith, in the days of his flesh, no con- 
nivance whatever with their sins. He hesitated not to rebuke 
them sharply for their unbelief, their earthliness of mind, and 
love of worldly preferment. He could say, " Get thee behind 
me, Satan," even to the warm-hearted Peter. Nevertheless, 
how gently did He deal with their weaknesses, and bear 
with their provocations, acknowledging their feeblest attempts 
to serve him ! and when he saw them sinking under the 
burden of temptation too heavy for them to bear, how ready 
was He to plead on their behalf ; " the spirit indeed is willing, 
but the flesh is weak," — and when they had fallen, how 
willing was He to forgive ! 

After the example of your heavenly Master, endeavour to 
combine love with faithfulness in the government of your 
houses. Let the more severe and exact graces of decision 
and justice be tempered with charity and forbearance, as 
the flower and the foliage of spring mantle the bold pro- 
minence of the rock, blending beauty and majesty together. 
Suffer no sin upon your servants; but so correct and chide, that 
your reproofs may resemble rather the support of the friendly 
arm, than the stroke of the chastising rod. 

Deal with them as your God and Saviour is dealing with 
you, whose fingers ever drop the healing balm into the 
wounds they open, and whose discipline has but one end, 
even your eternal joy. 



60 THE DUTY OF MASTERS. 

In a word, let it appear that Christ himself is, in truth, the 
master of your house — and that as good stewards of the au- 
thority and influence He has put into your hands, you are 
labouring to restore to Him, the precious and immortal 
talents He has committed to you, with abundant increase. 



Wbt Wuty of $erbmtt& 



rtrmoit ¥&> 



THE DUTY OF SERVANTS. 

Preached January 26, 1851. 



Colossians, iii. 22 — 25. " Servants, obey in all things your masters 
according to the flesh ; not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers ; but in sin- 
gleness of heart, fearing God ; and whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to 
the Lord, and not unto men ; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive 
the reward of the inheritance : for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that 
doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done : and there is 
no respect of persons." 

I think I have high and ample warrant, in the word of God, 
for addressing myself, to-night, exclusively to servants. 

It is a fact, — which all who belong to that class will do well 
especially to notice, — that the precepts which relate to their 
duties and obligations, occur more frequently, and are written 
with far greater force and earnestness, than those which bear 
upon any other relation, which binds man to man : — and I 
think I cannot do better, with a view to prepare your minds 
to receive with deeper attention the remarks I am about to 
offer, as well as to afford myself a broader and more extended 
basis, on which to found those remarks, — if I proceed to call to 
your remembrance some of the more prominent Scriptures, 
which describe the duties of your station, — expressing at the 
same time, the earnest hope, that you will carefully turn out 



64 THE DUTY OF SERVANTS. 

and note the different passages, and peruse them at your lei- 
sure with meditation and prayer. 

In addition to the words of my text, — in the viith chap, of 
1st Epistle to the Corinthians (which has been read in the 
service of this evening) and at the 20th and 21st verses, the 
Apostle St. Paul urges the converted slaves of Corinth to 
abide in their vocation : " Let every man abide in the same 
calling wherein he was called. Art thou called" (in other 
words, hast thou embraced Christianity) " being a servant ? 
care not for it : but if thou mayest be made free, use it ra- 
ther," — (that is avail yourself of the privilege.) " For he that 
is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's freeman : 
likewise also he that is called being free, is Christ's servant. 
Ye are bought with a price ; be not ye the servants of men. 
Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide 
with God." Again,in the vith chap, of his Epistle to the Ephe- 
sians, and at the 5th to the 8th verse, he writes, " Servants, be 
obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, in 
fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ ; 
Not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers ; but as the servants of 
Christ, doing the will of God from the heart ; with goodwill 
doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men : knowing that 
whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he re- 
ceive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free." Again, in 
the vith chap, of his 1st Epistle to Timothy, "Let as many 
servants as are under the yoke count their masters worthy of 
all honour, that the name of God, and his doctrine, be not 
blasphemed. And they that have believing masters, let them 
not despise them, because they are brethren ; but rather do 
them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers 
of the benefit." 

Also, in the iind chap, of his Epistle to Titus, from the 9th to 



THE DUTY OF SERVANTS. 65 

the 14th verse : " Exhort servants to be obedient unto their 
own masters, and to please them well in all things ; not answer- 
ing again ; not purloining, but showing all good fidelity ; that 
they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. 
For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared 
to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly 
lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this 
present world ; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious 
appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ ; 
who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all 
iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of 
good works." 

Lastly, in the iind chap, of the 1st General Epistle of St. Peter, 
youhave a long paragraph addressed especially to'servants, from 
the 18th to the 25th verse, commencing with the exhortation, 
" Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear ; not only 
to the good and gentle, but also to the fro ward," — and con- 
cluding (after an animated appeal to them, to bear with faith 
and patience, any wrongs to which they might be exposed) 
with a most touching description of the beautiful resignation 
of the Saviour under his overwhelming afflictions, which as a 
further motive to their obedience, he reminds them, were 
endured for their sakes. " For this is thankworthy, if a man 
for conscience toward God, endure grief, suffering wrong- 
fully. For what glory is it if, when ye be buffeted for your 
faults, ye shall take it patiently ? but if, when ye do well, and 
suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with 
God. For even hereunto were ye called : because Christ 
also suffered for us, leaving an example, that ye should fol- 
low his steps : who did no sin, neither was guile found in his 
mouth : who, when he was reviled, reviled not again ; when 
he suffered, he threatened not ; but committed himself to him 



6() THE DITTY OF SERVANTS, 

that judgeth righteously : "Who his own self bare our sins in 
his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, 
should live unto righteousness : by whose stripes ye were 
healed. For ye were as sheep going astray ; but are now re- 
turned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls." 

Upon reading this large mass of inspired instruction, bear- 
ing upon the duties of Servants, it is natural for us to ask, 
"Why has this class of the community been singled out, among 
so many others, equally important, and made the subject of 
such repeated exhortations ? " 

One reason, which, I imagine, may be assigned in expla- 
nation of this remarkable fact is, that through our natural 
pride, servants have much difficulty in the discharge of the 
obedience, which, under all circumstances, they are bound 
to pay to their employers. It may be, moreover, that the 
holy men, who penned those passages, were moved to do 
so with a view to teach us, that there are none among men 
so obscure in station, or deficient in ability, as not to have it in 
their power to exert some influence for good or for evil over 
others, and that even a servant may eminently promote the 
glory of God and the edification of those around him, by a 
righteous and consistent walk in his lowly sphere. If these 
be the reasons, which called forth these repeated precepts, 
then I think I have a good justification, for the course I am 
adopting, in addressing servants on their specific duties, to- 
night ; and I would hope, that the same reasons will operate 
with some force, in inducing those, whom I address to receive 
my instructions, with meekness and serious attention. 

Ipropose to arrange the subject in something of the follow- 
ing order. First, I would call upon you to remember, the only 
foundation on which the true obedience of servants to their 
masters can possibly rest. Secondly, the nature of that obe- 



THE DUTY OF SERVANTS. 67 

dience. — And lastly, the very high inducement which is 
placed before them for its conscientious observance. 

I. — The foundation or principle on which the obedience of 
servants ought to rest, is very clearly set forth in the passages 
I have quoted. They are addressed, in every place, as Christ- 
ians, as believers and followers of the Son of God : " Ye serve 
the Lord Christ." "Be obedient, in singleness of your 
hearts, as unto Christ." " Do service as to the Lord, and not to 
men." This is the single argument by which the Apostle 
would persuade them ; — this is the stirring motive by which he 
would excite them to submission and fidelity. 

The principle is that, which we know by the familiar term 
of piety, — in other words, a sense of the presence, authority, 
and the love of God filling and animating the soul, — spring- 
ing from a lively faith in Christ, and giving a high and ele- 
vated tone to the whole outer man. 

It is not enough, Servants, that you satisfy your earthly 
employers, — that you are true to all your stipulations and en- 
gagements, — and that among your fellow servants you are 
even looked up to as a pattern of uprightness, industry, and 
truth ; — there is One, I would have you recollect, above all, 
whose claims upon your fidelity and devotion still remain to 
be adjusted. 

When your frail and fallible human master has given you 
the tribute of his honourable testimony, and you go out from 
his presence with a heart beating with every joyous and self- 
complacent emotion, there is still the footing, on which you 
stand with God, to be attended to. It is still to be enquired, 
how far the mighty account between you and your Almighty 
Master has been settled. Remember, I pray you, in the 
midst of your busy doings, that man is not God, — that you live 
in a fallen world, where deceit and dishonesty are common 

v 2 



68 THE DUTY OF SERVANTS. 

things, and where it is not difficult to rise above the ordinary 
level of human praise, — but that there is an Eye upon you, 
which weighs every action according to its intrinsic 
merit, and, with unerring exactness, traces it up to the hid- 
den motive from which it springs. And, O, remember, that 
there is a day at hand, when the enquiry will be, not what 
satisfaction you have given to your fellow-mortals — not to 
what extent you have secured the favour and praise of men, 
but — how far you have rendered to your God and Saviour 
that obedience which is so justly his due — amid all your 
busy doings, what have you done for Christ? 

I would not have you be less solicitous to please your su- 
periors. I shall presently lay before you, how high a stand- 
ard of deference and obedience to their wishes and require- 
ments you ought to aim at reaching. 

But I would warn you against being carried away by the 
delusion, into which so many of your class are prone to fall, that 
so long as you are doing your duty in your state of life, with 
comfort to yourself and satisfaction to your superiors, you 
need not be anxious upon the subject of your prospects in the 
eternal world. 

I would not have you look less to the building but more to 
the foundation on which it stands, for, what shall it profit 
you, however beautiful and fair it may appear, if it shall be 
found at last to have rested upon the sands ? 

How wretched, after all your year-long toils, to come to your 
dying bed, with no scriptural assurance that you are about to 
" enter into the rest that remaineth for the people of 
God," — to feel that you have gained the world, its good 
opinion and a few of its good things, but have lost your soul ! 
You may remember having heard of a great man, high in the 
favour of one of the most powerful of our sovereigns, who over- 



THE DUTY OF SERVANTS. 69 

whelmed with guilty recollections, piteously exclaimed in his 
last moments, " Had I but served my God as faithfully as I 
have served my king, He would not have forsaken me in my 
grey hairs." It is to be feared, that the latter end of many 
a servant is embittered by melancholy reflections of a similar 
character ; and that upon turning over the pages of conscience on 
a dying bed, they find, that they have acted through life ex- 
actly upon quite a contrary principle, to that laid down for their 
guidance in the word of God — that they have been men-plea- 
sers instead of God-pleasers — and that they have lived and 
laboured for an earthly and not a heavenly reward. 

I pray you then, dear friends, if you have never done so 
hitherto, to look well to-night into the state of your heart. 
Take those passages which I have brought before you, and 
ask yourselves solemnly, as before God, " Am I a servant of 
Christ ? Do I seek to please God in all my daily duties ? 
and, am I anticipating an eternal reward ? " 

O, neglect not your everlasting interests. Let the care of your 
souls be the one paramount object with you. Be anxious to 
live in those families, where you will have religious examples 
and religious opportunities ; and, if your privileges and op- 
portunities are few in the places in which your lot is cast, en- 
deavour to improve them, such as they are, to the utmost. 
Snatch a few moments, morning and evening, for reading 
a verse or two of God's word, and for offering your private 
devotions ; come to this house whenever you can do so, and 
to the sacramental table. 

But, should it be unhappily the case, that there are such 
obstacles in your situation to your serving God according to 
the dictates of your conscience, — that you must actually live in 
the daily practice of what you know to be wrong, and in the 
neglect of what you know to be right, it is your duty, at all 



70 THE DUTY OF SERVANTS. 

hazards, to relinquish a post of such imminent danger to your 
soul, however lucrative and advantageous, in many less vital 
respects, it may appear to be. 

For what, my friends, is the loss of a few miserable pounds, 
when weighed against the loss of an eternity of heavenly 
joys,— the wages of an incorruptible reward? 

Boldly abandon such unreal and deceptive advantages, 
which when seen in the light of the day of judgment, are 
stripped of all their glittering splendours. 

And, believe me, that you will never be the less happy — 
no, nor a whit the less poor, for such wise and holy self- 
denial. 

There are two golden sayings in Scripture, which, laid up 
in the heart with faith, will abundantly brace it up to make 
the most costly sacrifices for conscience' sake : " Godliness is 
profitable for all things, having the promise of the life that now 
is, and of that which is to come :" and again, " Seek first the 
kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things 
shall be added unto you." 

II. — Having, in conformity with the spirit of the precept 
of the text, laid before you the broad and deep foundation 
on which your obedience is to rest, I now proceed to speak 
of the nature of the obedience itself, which you are to 
rear on that foundation, as comprising the following four 
important dispositions, of submission, fidelity, truth, and 
humility. 

1. — A respectful deference, and a willing submission, to 
their employers, are qualities of prime and essential import- 
ance in servants ; and yet, judging from the tenor and fre- 
quency of the admonitions of St. Paul on the subject, it 
would seem they are extremely rare and difficult of attain- 
ment. 



THE DUTY OF SERVANTS. 71 

We all, by nature, aspire to independence ; we cannot 
brook authority ; even the Divine commands are grievous 
to us. 

And if so many are ready to trample on the laws of their 
Creator, — if, dreadful as the sanctions are, they dare to burst 
the sacred bonds, and to cast away the cords from them, it is 
not, surely, to be wondered at, that disobedience should mani- 
fest itself in servants, towards those, among men, whom God 
hath placed in authority over them. 

Hence, too often, the dependent thinks it unreasonable, 
always to submit to a man like himself — he kindles at rebuke, 
and will not bear expostulation — and, if he does not actually 
break forth into angry and insulting language, it is too 
evident from his manner, that though his tongue is silent, 
his heart is " answering again." Such a spirit, I need not re- 
mind you, is utterly and diametrically at variance with the 
precept before us, which says, " Servants, obey your masters 
in all things.'' God imperatively demands that you be sub- 
ject to your employers — and the obedience he enjoins, I would 
remind you, is of a far higher order, than such as is commonly 
understood by that word. 

It is not simple outward subjection, he requires you to 
pay, — the respectful manner, the performance of your 
allotted tasks — the subjection of the hand, the foot, and the 
tongue — it is the obedience of the heart, a willing, cheerful, 
obliging obedience. 

Consider well St. Paul's words to Titus, " Exhort servants 
to be obedient to their own masters, and to please them icell 
in all things*' not mere common obedience to orders, just 
barely going up to the line of duty which your employers 
have marked out for you, but going beyond that line, in order 
to please. How opposed is this spirit to that, which many 



72 THE DUTY OF SERVANTS. 

servants betray, who on all occasions are so ready to object, 
" This is not my place," and, " That is not my place !" 

God requires of you, promptness and ready compliance 
with the wishes of your employers, whenever they are ex- 
pressed, such as David describes in the cxxiii. Psalm, where 
he speaks " of the eyes of servants looking unto the hand 
of their masters, and the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of 
her mistress." 

Perhaps you object, that there are peculiarities in your 
position, which make it quite impossible for you to act out 
this precept ; that your employers are so exacting, so over- 
bearing, so violent in temper and conduct, that it is as much 
as you can do to bring yourself, to perform any of their com- 
mands. 

But I would have you observe, that the inspired writers 
allow of no relaxation of their rule under any circumstances, 
not even in favour of those believing servants, who were living 
in actual bondage, under the most oppressive heathen 
masters. 

The admonition in the viith chap, of the 1st Epistle to the 
Corinthians, and 21st verse, " Art thou called being a servant, 
care not for it," seems to intimate that it was a galling and 
degrading condition in which a slave of old stood ; and 
that the spirit of a man, not under the influence of Christian 
principles, could not but fret and chafe against the yoke by 
which he was enthralled ; and there are expressions in that 
passage of the 1st Epistle of St. Peter, to which I have refer- 
red, descriptive of the bufTetings and bodily sufferings to which 
the slave was continually exposed, and from which it was im- 
possible to escape, — which may teach you that your condition as 
hired servants, in a free Christian country, is one, with which 
the condition of a slave, even in the Augustan age, and 



THE DUTY OF SERVANTS. 73 

under the sway of imperial Rome, cannot for a moment be 
compared. And yet how were these degraded and often illused 
bondmen to carry themselves towards their wicked and tyranni- 
cal masters? " Servants," saith St. Peter, " be subject to your 
masters with all fear, not to the good and gentle only, but also 
to the froward." Does this seem a hard saying — hard it must 
be to all in whose bosoms the principle of which we have 
spoken is not in operation. If the only motive of your 
obedience be a desire to please man, this will never support 
you under harsh and contemptuous treatment ; but if you are 
influenced by a love of Christ, and are living, as under the eye 
of God, you will be able to conduct yourself with meekness, 
equanimity, and stedfastness, even in the most trying circum- 
stances. 

2. — But further learn from the inspired directions I have 
brought before you, that it is a principal part of your obedi- 
ence as servants to watch for the interests, and consult the 
welfare, of your employers. 

The words of St. Paul to Titus, " Not purloining, but show- 
ing all good fidelity," plainly teach you, that though your temp- 
tations may be great, and your opportunities many, of enriching 
yourselves by unlawful means, you are to be rigidly and con- 
scientiously honest. There are many servants, who under no 
circumstances would take an article of considerable value ; — 
but who do not hesitate to appropriate and give away what 
they call trifles, — things w r hich they say their masters and 
mistresses will never miss. 

But let them remember, that to take any thing which is not 
their own, however insignificant in value, is an act of dis- 
honesty, for which they wall have, most surely, to give ac- 
count. There are no trivial acts of fraud in the sight of God. 

When once you have departed from the narrow path of 



74 THE DUTY OP SERVANTS. 

Christian integrity and uprightness, who shall say whither 
your wandering feet may not lead you ? 

It was in this way that the unhappy felon began that 
course of sin and shame, which has ended in perpetual 
banishment from the land of his birth. He was not a daring 
thief at once — he began with the same petty frauds which 
some among you may now be practising — he became gradually 
familiarized with evil — he then advanced with greater bold- 
ness, until at last detection and punishment overtook and 
overwhelmed him. Retrace your steps, therefore, before it 
be too late ; and guard for the future against such dangerous 
practices with scrupulous minuteness. 

3. — Another important branch of that obedience which 
servants are required to show to their employers, is a strict 
adherance to truth. 

A servant who fails in this particular, however active, 
clever, and obliging in the performance of duty he may be , 
will never be trusted, and can never prosper. 

But falsehood, I would remind you, may be practised in 
several ways. A lie may be acted as well as uttered. Ananias 
lied as fearfully as Gehazi, Elisha's wicked servant, although 
it is not mentioned that, like Gehazi, he actually made any 
false assertion by word of mouth. 

And so, if you pretend to conform to the rules of the 
family in which you live, and to fulfil the commands which 
are laid upon you, and yet in reality, when your em- 
ployers' backs are turned, you are disobeying them, you are 
adding to the sin of disobedience, that of falsehood. When* 
moreover, you try to conceal any mischief you have done, or 
suffer another to be suspected of it, you are truly, as guil ty 
of a lie, as if you had boldly and unblushingly declared your 
innocence. 



THE DUTY OF SERVANTS. 75 

To connive at what you see to be going on wrong among 
your fellow servants, is also a form of falsehood. Tale- 
bearing is certainly not a practice I would have any servant 
lend himself to. There is nothing, indeed, more despicable 
than for one human being to seek to rise by the fall of others, 
and to prop up his own credit by undermining that of his 
neighbour ; but I do not hesitate to say, that no conscientious 
servant can, with a peaceful conscience, wink at practices 
which he sees are detrimental to the interests of his master. 
Even though he may personally abstain from joining in them 
himself, he cannot be otherwise than regarded as an accomplice 
and partner in the crimes, of which, day after day, he is the 
silent and unconcerned witness. 

I might, did the time permit, enlarge upon the obligations 
which lie upon you, not to carry into the world the con- 
versations you may hear at the family table — or any private 
matters which may come into your possession, by mingling 
with your superiors in the course of your daily occupations. 
I would simply remark upon this practice (which I fear is 
but too common) that it is a very serious breach of the trust 
which is reposed in servants, and is productive often of irre- 
parable mischief. 

4. — I cannot however dismiss this branch of my observa- 
tions on your duties, without earnestly counselling you to 
cultivate a spirit of humility and contentment with your 
station. It is the absence of this important temper, that is 
the rife cause of the divisions and heart-burnings, which so 
often throw whole households into confusion. 

If there was always that mutual submission in the fear of 
God, which the Apostle in the 21st verse of the vith chap, of 
the Epistle of the Ephesians enjoins, of which the spring is 
humility ; how happy might all our domestic circles be, — how 



76 THE DUTY OF SERVANTS. 

little of that untoward, unkind, and selfish bearing of one 
poor sinner to another would show itself, which now so often 
breaks up all their peace ! 

And under this head, let me call upon you who are servants 
to avoid running into the prevalent, unbecoming (nay, I 
would say sinful,) habit of extravagance in dress. 

It is not from any wish to depress you in the scale of 
society that we would check any of you in your attempts, by 
your outward appearance, to rise up to the level of your 
superiors. Were it simply that you were desirous of im- 
proving your condition, by cultivating your minds, or by 
endeavouring to lay out your earnings to the best advantage, 
we should feel ourselves bound to speak to you in terms of 
high commendation, rather than those of reproof. 

But milder language than that of admonition would, in this 
case, be as cruel as it would be unfaithful. The practice, 
believe me, is full of danger. It is an alarming index of the 
state of the mind. Many a young woman has been brought 
by love of dress into lasting shame and misery ; and how many 
a domestic servant, in advanced years, is sighing in vain for 
the possession of a tithe of the sums which were squandered 
in early life, upon the outward adornment of that mortal frame, 
which is now almost ready for the shroud ! 

Instead of acting this improvident and unseemly part, — 
instead of taking to yourselves the apparel and manners of 
your superiors, at so great and ruinous a cost, be satisfied 
withaneat and modest exterior, conformable with you station. 

By this means, while you will approve yourselves consistent 
followers of the lowly Jesus, you will effectually secure the 
good opinion of your employers — whereas finery and frivolous 
vanity on your part can only lead them to distrust and despise 
you. 



THE DUTY OF SERVANTS. 77 

You will also have it in your power to lay up a goodly 
portion of your earnings, for the evil day ; and thus save 
yourselves from those bitter privations, and still more bitter 
reproaches, which through extravagance and imprudence in 
the use of their wages, come upon so many of our domestic 
servants in their declining years. 

III. — I now in the third place proceed to strengthen these 
exhortations by setting before you the high encouragements 
by which they are enforced. You have, I believe, peculiar 
difficulties and temptations to grapple with in your stations, 
and therefore you need peculiar incitements to steadfastness 
and integrity. 

Under any circumstances a servant's life is a life of great 
danger. Taken from a lower sphere of life, and brought 
into a position where you have every want supplied, and are 
surrounded with a thousand comforts, which only those who 
are domesticated in the houses of the rich can possibly 
enjoy, there is every inducement to you to live only for the 
present hour, regardless of all consequences, both of time 
and eternity. 

But cast as your lot is here, as a domestic servant in our 
great and giddy metropolis, where you are beset by many 
peculiarly dangerous and seductive influences, it must surely 
be, by an extraordinary putting forth of Divine strength, and 
the operation of more than common motives, if you are to be 
preserved unstained and uncorrupt in your walk through 
life. 

" It is a hard thing for a rich man to enter the kingdom of 
God" whose possessions and enjoyments cannot fail most 
powerfully to attract his attention from the higher and better 
realities of heaven ; but is it less hard for those who surround 
a rich man, and who themselves are surrounded by his 



78 THE DUTY OF SERVANTS. 

entanglements ? The virtuous and godly servant must often 
be sorely grieved and shocked by the profane and immoral 
mirth that so often rings through the servants' hall ; and 
the upright and conscientious servant must find it a difficult 
thing to stem the stream of waste and extravagance, that is 
pouring on around him ; and especially to resist the power- 
ful temptations to peculation and dishonesty, which are so 
constantly placed before him by the unprincipled tradesman, 
who is but too ready to reward him in exact proportion to the 
waste he shall occasion in his master's goods. 

Yes, the daily cross must be taken up — persecution must 
be endured — the martyrdom of contempt and perpetual 
ridicule must be borne — if you would be rigidly and scrupulously 
upright in the discharge of your several duties — if you would 
refuse to defraud with the dishonest, and give the right hand 
of fellowship to the unchaste and profane. 

But there is one consideration of the most powerful and 
peace-giving character, suggested in all the passages of 
Scripture that bear upon your duties, to support the Christian 
servant in fighting the good fight of faith and righteousness 
in his station, although he may have daily occasion to cry out 
in the discharge of his painful duties, " Who is sufficient for 
these things ? " "Ye serve the Lord Christ." 

Under the guidance and protection of such a master, which 
of you needs to turn in fear and trembling out of the narrow 
and thorny path, in which it hath pleased the providence of 
God to place you ? 

Look once more at the condition of the poor Christian slaves 
in the age of the Apostles. It is quite impossible for us to 
enter into the true position in which many of them stood. 
In addition to the scorn, the execrations, and the bufferings^ 
which in common with the rest of their fellow- slaves, they 



THE DUTY OF SERVANTS. 79 

had, day after day to bear, and which were, probably, unu- 
sually severe in their case on account of the reproach which 
attached to the religion they professed, they lived and moved 
and had their being, in an atmosphere wholly impregnated 
with idolatry. Every article they touched, — every person 
they met with, — every sentiment that was uttered in their 
hearing, was tainted with idolatry. Surrounded however, as 
they were, by influences the most disadvantageous to the cul- 
tivation of personal religion, yet (you will observe) there is 
not a word breathed, in the directions addressed to them, 
about escaping from their yoke, or running away from 
their tyrannical masters. They were to avail themselves of 
the opportunity of being redeemed from bondage, if such an 
opportunity should arise ; but till that hour came, they were 
to continue to struggle on against the surrounding darkness, 
and to strive, by their meekness and cheerful obedience, " to 
adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour in all things." 

Do not then, Christian servants, although you live in the 
midst of irreligion and every evil work, let fall your hands in 
despair and faintheartedness, and quietly allow yourselves to 
be carried along by the dark polluting tide, by which you are 
surrounded. 

Do not say, as you may be tempted to say, " Well, it is no 
use to endeavour to be upright and religious in this ungodly 
family." We challenge you, my friends, to show that you 
are more unfavourably circumstanced than the Christian slaves 
at Ephesus or at Colosse, in the apostolic age. — We challenge 
you to show any likelihood that the profession of religion will 
expose you to greater contempt, or bring upon you greater 
loss, than was endured by those servants of St. Paul's days, 
who, through his preaching, were brought to exchange 
Heathenism for Christianity. 



80 THE DUTY OF SERVANTS. 

It may be your duty to avail yourselves of the privilege 
you enjoy as a citizen of a free country, of making your 
escape from a situation so unfavourable to personal religion ; 
but, so long as you remain in that situation, do not give 
back from the conflict, and throw off your religious profes- 
sion, upon the plea that it is no use to attempt, in your pecu- 
liar condition, to be religious. Such an excuse is perfectly un- 
tenable. It plainly contradicts the Divine word and promi- 
ses — it is a libel upon the Gospel of the grace of God, — 
it throws foul scorn upon the divine attributes. " Ye serve 
the Lord Christ,' ' and he will never fail the man, who is not 
false to himself. 

See what triumphs believing saints of former days have 
been enabled to achieve. Go back to far less privileged 
times. See Joseph, as a bond servant, in a land teeming with 
"gods many, and lords many," not only barely maintaining 
his religious profession, but maintaining it in such a way as 
to compel the admiration of all who knew him. It is pro- 
bable that Potiphar cared not, whether his servants were 
religious or not. But he could not help seeing that this 
young Hebrew made him a better servant than all the rest. 
He is compelled by the fruit to examine the tree, — he dis- 
covers that the man who worships the God of Abraham is 
far more conscientious, far more pure, far more trustworthy 
than any who worshipped the reptile gods of Egypt, and so 
he promotes him over all his other servants, and commits all 
that he has, to his confidential stewardship ; and when placed 
in that responsible position, you know how well and steadfastly 
Joseph conducted himself — how nobly he resisted shameless 
and reiterated solicitations to sin — and how thathe was willing 
to expose himself to the malice of an unprincipled woman, 
rather than sin at her suggestion against God. 



THE DUTY OF SERVANTS. 81 

See Obadiah in Ahab's idolatrous house, a dutiful servant, 
and yet a faithful and uncompromising adherent to the living 
and true God of Israel, and, at the hazard of his own life, 
rescuing a hundred prophets of the Lord from martyrdom. 

Look at Daniel, as a slave, the humble cup-bearer in the 
court of Babylon, going through the reigns of Nebuchad- 
nezzar, Darius, and Belshazzar, with an unblemished reputa- 
tion, — shining as a light in a dark place, — exposed to the 
most terrible persecutions for conscience' sake, — yet stead- 
fastly resisting them all. 

See Naaman's little maid, glorifying God in her humble 
sphere, and made the instrument both of the cure of her 
master's inveterate malady and the turning of his soul from 
the power of Satan unto God. 

And then, lastly, read those remarkable words of St. 
Paul in the last chapter of his Epistle to the Philippians, at 
the 22nd verse, " All the saints salute you, chiefly they that 
are of Caesar's household." 

If there was one spot in all the earth more unfavourable 
than another for the propagation and growth of Christianity, 
that spot was the palace of the blood-thirsty Nero, who then 
sat on the throne of the Caesars. 

We know that the character of a master, much more of 
a prince, usually gives its tone to that of his attendants. 
What a den of lions must therefore the court of Nero have 
been, whose vices and enormities will make his name in- 
famous to the end of the world, and by whose sword St. 
Paul himself eventually perished ! And yet Christianity makes 
its way even into the imperial halls ! It was like rushing 
into the very jaws of death, there to confess Christ, and yet, 
there Christ was confessed, and that too by those, who were 
dependants and servants. 



82 THE DUTY OF SERVANTS. 

And who shall say (since Paul was now in bonds) that 
one solitary servant did not at first embrace the truth, having 
heard it from the Apostle's lips in his "hired house," where he 
"received and preached to all that came in unto him," and that 
from that individual, the blessed tidings of a crucified Saviour 
were not passed from lip to lip and heart to heart throughout 
the vast establishment of the emperor, until a crowd of be- 
lievers was found even in the court of the profligate and 
persecuting Nero, and St. Paul (who perhaps had never set 
foot within the imperial gates) was at last enabled triumph- 
antly to say, " My bonds in Christ are manifest in all the 
palace." 

Let these encouraging instances, the latter especially, 
animate you to a bold profession of pure and undefiled 
religion, even in the bosom of the most godless families. 
You may be vexed with filthy conversation, and blasphemous 
gibes, and immoral practices, but remember that the God 
o^ Joseph, the God of Daniel, and the God of Nero's 
courtiers and servants at Rome, is your God. He will sus- 
tain you, as he sustained them. 

"He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever" — the same 
Lord over all, rich in mercy to all that faithfully call upon 
him. Let the fear of God be your strength. All other 
principles will snap like threads of glass upon the first 
pressure of real temptation. But " be strong in the Lord and 
in the power of His might," and whatever difficulties may 
hedge up your way from licentious employers, and even from 
ungodly associates, you shall be "kept by that power through 
faith unto salvation." 

Only strive, in the strength of your faithful Master, to pre- 
serve "a conscience void of offence toward God and man" — to 
be steadfast and immovable in purity and rectitude, — in a word, 



THE DUTY OF SERVANTS. 83 

to " adorn the doctrine of God your Saviour' ' in all your daily 
practice ; — and by the silent, but persuasive eloquence of your 
consistent life, you may become, in the hands of God, instru- 
ments for pulling down the strongholds of ungodliness, in 
the midst of which you dwell. Those around you, and above 
you, may be led to enquire more accurately into the motives 
which excite you to such real fidelity, humility, and obliging- 
ness, and even to embrace for themselves the truths, that they 
see operating so powerfully and beautifully, in your habitual 
conduct. 

You mistake it greatly, if you think that your talent is 
susceptible of no increase, and no recompense — and that who- 
ever among men have time and opportunity for advancing the 
cause and glorifying the name of the Son of God, certainly 
a servant has none. 

Believe me, every little action you perform in your com- 
mon menial services, if it be done as under the eye of God, 
and with a view to please your Saviour, — all your rising up 
early and going to bed late, all your anxiety to subserve 
the interests of your employers, — all your refusal of bribes, 
and endurance of reproach, even if it meet with no notice 
or acknowledgment on earth, is noticed and recorded in 
heaven, and will by no means lose its reward. The day of 
judgment will show that there is no position on earth really 
more honourable, when filled by those who are walking humbly 
with their God — in which Christ may be more eminently 
glorified — and in which a brighter crown of glory may be 
won, than that of a domestic servant. 

Your Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Himself was a servant, 
and hear what He says of your lowly estate of life, (in the 
xxth chapter of the Gospel of St. Matthew, and the 26th 
verse) " Whosoever will be great among you, let him be 

g 2 



84 THE DUTY OF SERVANTS. 

your minister ; and whosoever will be chief among you, let 
him be your servant ; even as the Son of Man came not to 
be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a 
ransom for many. ,, 

Follow (though it must needs be at a remote distance) in the 
footsteps of your Divine Pattern and Forerunner. Imitate Him 
in His fidelity, in His purity, His transparent singleness of 
purpose, His truth, His beautiful humility, and wonderful 
meekness under reproach and persecution. 

Live upon His fulness, walk in His Spirit, and humbly rest 
upon His merits, and He shall bring you at last, far away 
from your trials, your toils, and your temptations, to honours 
and felicities proportioned to the difficulties you have had to 
overcome; — and, numbering you high among his saints in 
glory everlasting, He shall say, "Well done, good and faith- 
ful servants, enter into the joy of your Lord." 



Wbt Hutfi of Hugtate, 



Sermon V. 



THE DUTY OF HUSBANDS. 

Preached February 9, 1851. 



Ephesians, v. 25—27. " Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also 
loved the Church, and gave himself for it ; that he might sanctify and 
cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present 
it to himself a glorious. Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such 
thing ; but that it should be holy and without blemish." 

In endeavouring to complete the cycle of my instructions 
upon the duties of domestic life, I have placed before you 
successively, the nature of the ties, which unite you as 
parents and children, and as masters and servants, together 
with the obligations which those ties involve. 

I come now to speak of the most close and sacred of 
all earthly relations. 

" Holy matrimony (saith the Church) is an honourable estate, 
instituted of God, in the time of man's innocency, signifying 
unto us the mystical union that is betwixt Christ and his 
Church : which holy estate Christ adorned and beautified 
with his presence, and first miracle that he wrought, in Cana 
of Galilee, and is commended of St. Paul to be honourable 
among all men, and therefore is not by any to be enterprised, 
nor taken in hand unadvisedly, lightly, or wantonly. " And, 
surely, when, in addition to these high and holy considera- 



88 THE DUTY OF HUSBANDS. 

tions, we reflect that it is the source of all the other natural 
relations of mankind — that in private life it brings a blending 
together of affections, interests, and labours, to which this 
present existence affords no parallel — and, that being the 
great spring of all education, industry, and subordination, it 
scatters abroad whatever of public peace and security exists 
upon the earth — we cannot but hold such an institution in 
the most sacred esteem, and look up with the liveliest grati- 
tude to its Divine Founder, who hath expressly ordained it 
for the mutual comfort and help of his wedded servants in all 
ages of the world. 

A state so holy, however, obviously involves very peculiar 
obligations ; and it is entirely upon the discharge of those 
obligations, that the development of the blessings, annexed 
to it, depends. 

If misery is not unfrequently the fruit of marriage, it is 
because those who have engaged in it, have never duly con- 
sidered the causes for which it has been ordained — have 
never consulted the Divine blessing in their union, — in a 
word, have forgotten the emphatic injunctions of Scripture, 
which commands that " they who marry, shall marry only in 
the Lord." 

With the view, therefore, of rendering this state more 
holy in your estimation, and, therefore, more happy in your 
experience, I would proceed to lay before those among you 
who have mutually engaged " to live together in wedlock, 
according to God's holy ordinance," that is, according to the 
precepts laid down in his word, bearing upon your state, 
what those laws are you are required to observe. 

It was God's own command, that the Kings of Israel 
should have a copy of His Law delivered to them at their 
coronation, to furnish them with direction and support in the 



THE DUTY OF HUSBANDS. 89 

administration of the affairs of the realm. In like manner, 
and for the same reasons, the Church, at the conclusion of 
the marriage office, delivers a brief abstract of Holy Writ to 
each of the parties she has united, addressing them severally 
in Scripture language, upon what the Scripture hathjsaid, 
" touching the duties of husbands towards their wives, and 
of wives towards their husbands." 

I would attempt to work out in detail the instructions (of 
which the inspired foundation she has so wisely laid in her 
formulary), confining my remarks upon the present occasion 
(since the whole subject is far too comprehensive to be 
treated in a single discourse) to the duties and obligations of 
husbands to their wives. 

May He, who originally ordained, and in the days of his 
flesh so highly honoured, the institution of which we are 
speaking, direct and sanctify our meditations — while I seek 
to unfold to you, so far as the Holy Spirit shall enable me, 
firstly, something of the nature and characteristics of the love 
of Christ ; and then, those particulars in which man's con- 
jugal affection ought to bear resemblance to that of the Son 
of God, of whom it is said, that " he loved his Church, and 
gave himself for it." 

L — First, then, the love of Christ to his Church. If we 
would form anything like an adequate idea of the exceeding 
great love of our Lord and only Saviour, Jesus Christ, for 
redeemed men, we must think of Him in His essential and 
pre-existent glory — we mustrealize Him as seated on heaven's 
highest throne, the Creator and Upholder of an Infinite Uni- 
verse. Observe how the prophet Ezekiel describes him, in the 
i. chapter of his Prophecy, and at the 26th and two following 
verses : "Above the firmament that was over them was the 
likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone, 



90 THE DUTY OF HUSBANDS. 

and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness of the 
appearance of a man above it. And I saw, as the colour of 
amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it ; from 
the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the 
appearance of his loins even downward, I saw, as it were, the 
appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about. As 
the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud, in the day of 
rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. 
This was the appearance of the likeness and the glory of the 
Lord." 

With what veneration and astonishment should we regard 
the descent of this glorious Being into this lower world ! 
What thoughts of gratitude and praise should spring up 
within the heart, when we think of our redemption being 
done by one, who unrobed himself of such splendours as 
these, and came unto the humblest of the provinces of the 
Empire of His Dominion, in the disguise of a servant, and 
took upon Him the form of our degraded species, and let 
himself down to sorrows, and to sufferings, and to death for 
man ! Surely the love of Christ for the Church was a costly 
love ! 

Consider what he gave on her behalf ! He gave not silver 
nor gold, for " we were not redeemed with corruptible 
things," nor the blood of innumerable victims, although " the 
fulness of the earth was his, and so were the cattle on her 
thousand hills." He gave not angels, nor thrones, nor do- 
minions, principalities or powers, although he might have 
created myriads to supply their vacancies in the ranks of 
heaven. He gave not systems, nor suns, nor worlds, nor 
any of the rich and varied wonders of His vast creation. 

He gave Himself. 

He gave His Deity, he gave His Humanity. He left his 



THE DUTY OF HUSBANDS. 91 

Father, and that high and holy place, where He was compassed 
about with light inaccessible and full of glory ; and taking 
to Himself her nature, he joined Himself to His elect bride, 
so that they " two became one flesh." For her sake He 
became incarnate. For her sake he lived a life of ignominy, 
meanness, and contempt. Every sort of evil seemed to 
accumulate in the history of His life. Darker and darker 
clouds gathered upon His path — He shook in the dreadful 
prospect ! He prayed that the sorrows which awaited Him, 
might be averted from Him. 

But He went boldly forward, into all the horrors of that 
thick darkness, in the midst of which He was to be offered 
as the propitiation for our sins — -urged by the power of that 
"great love, wherewith He loved us." 

His Father withdrew from Him the light of His gracious 
countenance — and then what mourning, distraction, and sore 
amazement fell up on His holysoul! He diedthe death of deaths! 

All the curse — all the wrath — all the wormwood and the 
gall, which our sins had merited, were gathered up and 
pressed together, into the cup which His Father put to His lips 
— but He drained it to the last bitter dregs, that not one drop 
might be tasted by the Spouse whom He loved. 

Behold then, and admire the generous self-forgetting 
character of the love of Christ ! 

2. Another not less distinguishing quality of this love as 
described in the 29th verse of this chapter was its peculiar 
tenderness, " No man ever yet hated his own flesh, but 
nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the Church — 
for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his 
bones." 

What melting compassion characterized all His actions 
when on earth, and was breathed in all his words ! 



92 THE DUTY OF HUSBANDS. 

See Him weeping at the tomb of Lazarus, and uttering 
over Jerusalem the exquisitely touching lamentation, " If 
thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the 
things which belong unto thy peace, but now they are hid 
from thine eyes." 

And yet the most tender gushings of His compassion are 
to be traced in His actings towards the Church whom He 
loved. See him watching with sleepless vigilance over the 
little flock He had chosen, — giving them instruction as they 
were able to bear it, and gently leading them onwards 
through trials proportioned to their strength — until they were 
enabled to witness His departure with resignation and joy, and 
to go forth fearlessly in His name, to proclaim His truth to 
the ends of the earth. 

Nor was that a temporary character He assumed. His 
pitying and tender affection for His people has survived His 
resurrection, and passed up with Him into the heavens. 

For there we are enabled to realise Him to our conception, 
as retaining the form, the nature, and all the sympathies of 
the man Jesus Christ. " We have not " (saith the apostle) 
" an high priest, which cannot be touched with a feeling of 
our infirmities, but was tempted in all points like as we are, 
yet without sin." 

The eye of faith reveals him to us, as standing at the 
right hand of God, bearing the names of all His people on 
his heart, suffering with their sorrows, pleading their cause, 
and so "keeping them by his power through faith unto 
salvation." 

3. And here we see another precious quality of the love 
of Christ standing forth conspicuously — even its constancy and 
perpetuity. He " who loved his own that were in the world, 
loveth them unto the end," — and how vividly and gratefully 



THE DUTY OF HUSBANDS. 93 

do those, now safe within the borders of the Heavenly Fold, 
perceive, that had it not been, that their faithful and com- 
passionate High Priest, had dealt with them as the shepherd 
deals with his thoughtless and truant sheep — that had he not 
in spite of the determination of a w T ay ward heart to linger, and 
procrastinate, drawn them with the bands of love, and never 
for a moment withheld his watchful care and guidance, until 
he had brought them to the still waters and ever verdant 
pastures of the Paradise of God — they would have been 
mingled with the wandering and the lost for ever! 

Surely, the consideration of this attribute of the love of 
Christ for his Church, ought to impart unspeakable comfort 
to the humble believer, in the midst of all the public agita- 
tions that are going on around him — and when the pure 
faith delivered to the saints seems in danger of being 
swallowed up by the surges of controversy, that are heaving 
on every side. The gates of Hell shall never prevail against 
that Church whose foundations are upon the everlasting rock 
of ages. Nay, there is no humble believer, however lowly in 
his station, or however tried and exercised in his spirit,who 
shall be overwhelmed by any assault which either men or 
Satan shall level against him. 

Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, will 
continually impart to you, his afflicted and tempest-tost 
servant, light to guide, wisdom to instruct, strength to uphold, 
and consolation to refresh you, so as to enable you to run with 
patience the race that is set before you, and to finish your 
course with joy. "While you lean on his Almighty arm for 
support, and look to his divine illumination to direct your 
steps, he will bring you safely to the possession of your 
purchased inheritance in heaven — like the pillar of fire of old 
brightening your path, all the way through the wilderness — 



94 THE DUTY OF HUSBANDS. 

till you have passed the borders of that good land of promise, 
and are safely housed within your Father's many mansions, 
and in the " city of the living God." "Wherefore " let not 
your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." 

4. Once more observe, that the love, which the Saviour 
entertains for his Church, is a holy love. 

Why did he give himself for his spouse ? The passage 
before us replies, " that he might sanctify and cleanse his 
Church with the washing of water by the word, that he might 
present it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or 
wrinkle, or any such thing ; but that it should be holy and 
without blemish." 

Such is the end of all the anguish and sore travail of soul 
of the Saviour — such the master key by which we may unlock 
all His mysterious dealings with each individual of his people. 
"This is the will of God, even your sanctification." 

What are all the sorrows, and crosses, and distresses, that 
continually befal us, but so many darker threads wove into 
the web of life by the Saviour's hand according to a pattern 
in which the divine glory, and the believer's establishment in 
holiness, are blended together ! And what are all the adverse 
providences, which have assailed the cause and truth of God 
in successive ages, but the flames of that furnace through 
which the Church is passing, that she may come forth as the 
pure gold, that bears upon its brilliant surface, the reflected 
image of the refiner and purifier ! 

The day is at hand, when the great purpose of the Saviour 
towards his people will be accomplished ; and if now there 
is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth — if when a 
single son or a single daughter is recalled from sin to 
righteousness, all the ranks of the angelic host are in a stir of 
delight — what will be the sight and what the joy, when that 



THE DUTY OF HUSBANDS. 95 

great multitude is brought in whom no man can number, all 
"clothed in white and with palms in their hands!" If one 
tendril of the living Vine be so beautiful, what will be the tree 
itself, laden with immortal fruits, and spreading forth " its 
boughs unto the sea, and its branches unto the river ! " 

O, if one living stone, quarried from the pit of human 
corruption, and cemented into its place upon the tried founda- 
tion by the Holy Spirit, so emphatically proclaims the skill 
and power of the Almighty Architect — what will be the 
development of his wisdom and might when the topstone 
shall be brought in, and the whole building shall stand forth 
in all its grandeur, symmetry, and glorious proportions ! 

Yet this is the one grand moving principle of the divine 
philanthropy — the spring of all that costly, tender, and 
enduring love which Christ has exhibited towards his Church, 
even that he might " present her to himself a glorious 
Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing ; but 
that she should be holy and without blemish." 

II. — Such, then, are some of the elements and charac- 
teristics of the love of Christ. 

It is a subject of deep interest, and full of edification to us 
all, but I would remind you that it is placed before us in this 
passage for a particular purpose, and for the instruction of a 
particular class. 

" Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the 
Church." 

Here is your model ! After this beautiful pattern are 
you to shape your affection and your conduct towards your 
wives. 

1. Was the love of Christ to His Spouse a costly, self- 
denying love ? In like manner, do you, husbands, ever 
count it your highest pleasure to assist and support your 



96 THE DUTY OF HUSBANDS. 

wedded partners, " giving them honour " (as saith St. Paul), 
" as unto the weaker ^vessels," who are less able to encoun- 
ter labour than yourselves, and are exposed to many infirmities 
and sufferings, which peculiarly call for succour and accom- 
modation. 

Reflect continually upon their helpless condition without 
you — their entire dependance upon your superior strength 
and wisdom. 

If you have families, you have only to consider how deso- 
late would be their state, were you removed from them. 

The work of raising up children from infancy to manhood, 
is the most laborious and anxious of all earthly concerns, and 
requires more toil, more patience, and solicitude, than any 
other. 

What then would be the prospect of their preservation and 
safe conduct through the ills and temptations of life, were 
their mother alone to be their protectors and guides ? Con- 
stitutionally unfitted to encounter the rude, toilsome, and 
discouraging scenes, every where presented by this wicked, 
untoward world, and allotted by the Creator to the robust har- 
dihood of man — how could she, feeble and defenceless herself, 
sustain and defend them ? Surely this affecting thought ought 
powerfully to incite you to industry and perseverance in the 
prosecution of your daily avocations. 

It should brace up your heart to renewed and more vigorous 
exertion when inclined to sink under trial, or to yield to the 
suggestions of indolence and self-indulgence, to think of one 
at home, whose comfort and support so entirely depend upon 
your energies, and must be, necessarily, abridged by any 
separate and selfish gratification in which you may indulge — 
who left the shelter of the parental roof, and the sweets of 
parental affection, in the full confidence that she should find 



THE DUTY OF HUSBANDS. 97 

in you all that she had resigned. Never, I pray you, by your 
coldness, by your neglect, by preferring more exciting scenes 
to the quiet and peaceful joys of the domestic circle, by 
engaging in recreations or pursuits (which may be congenial 
indeed to your taste, but which will shut you out from her 
society), — never give her the slightest cause to suspect that 
the confidence she has reposed in you has been misplaced, 
and, that the vows of attachment, which you have so 
solemnly uttered, before the footstool and in the sanctuary 
of God, have been rashly and thoughtlessly made. 

2. Let your affection for your wives, again, like the love 
of your Saviour, be a tender and sympathising affection. I do 
not mean by this, that you are to cherish towards them an 
idolatrous fondness. There may be such a doting attach- 
ment between a wedded pair, as shall draw off their minds 
from all higher and heavenly things, — and this cannot but be 
displeasing to a jealous God, who will not suffer the creature 
to rob him of that first place in the affections of man, which 
He so justly claims for Himself. 

We have an affecting instance of this, in the conduct of 
Jacob towards his beloved Rachel. The love, which he 
entertained for her, had in early life, banished from his mind 
every thought of the difficulties of his exiled situation, and 
the labours and toils which were then gathering around him. 
Nay, that heart-engrossing feeling so sweetened every toil 
and enhanced every joy, that " the seven years he served for 
Rachel seemed unto him but a few days for the love he had 
to her;" and yet it was that very feeling which made him so 
blind to her faults, and would not suffer him, till many years 
had passed, to urge her to put away the strange gods 
to which she so pertinaciously clung, O, beware of this 
dangerous, false, and blinding love — a love which can- 

H 



98 THE DUTY OF HUSBANDS. 

not fail to bring sorrow and misery on those who indulge 
it! 

Nevertheless, be tender and sympathising. 

While it is your duty, as "the head of your wife," to point 
out her failings and infirmities, do it in that spirit of humility 
and meekness, which the Apostle so strongly commands 
upon all believers, — " considering yourself lest you also be 
tempted." Remember, that she to whom you have been 
united, like yourself, is but an " earthen vessel," — a fallen, 
feeble, and sinful creature, — do not, therefore, require too 
much — do not expect too much. — Above all, be not " bitter 
against her." Do not exercise your legitimate authority, 
harshly, imperiously, or tyrannically. Remember, that the 
female heart is exquisitely sensitive. It soon feels a slight. 
It cannot bear up under common coldness, much less under 
positive wrong. It bleeds instinctively and copiously at the 
sight of undue attention paid to another. It is quickly broken 
down under cutting words and scornful treatment. If, then, 
you yourself have experienced anything of the gentleness of 
Christ in his dealings towards you as a sinner — be gentle and 
tender towards the wife of your bosom, — the weaker vessel 
whom you have so solemnly promised to love and cherish 
unto your dying day, — ever striving to act out the Apostolic 
command in all your conjugal conduct, " Bear ye one another's 
burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." 

3. Again, let your love resemble that of Christ, in being 
constant and unchangeable. 

The love of the Saviour knows no ebbing or flowing. It 
is always at its highest tide. How often is wedded love the 
very reverse of this ! How often has it cooled down into a 
mere respectful behaviour and kindness of manner ; nay, 
how often has it been exchanged for actual estrangement, if 



THE DUTY OF HUSBANDS. 99 

not personal aversion ! And yet, how could it be otherwise ? 
The attachment was built, it may be, on personal attractions, 
and, while the bloom was on the cheek, and there was grace 
in the form, it was strong and vigorous, but, when these most 
fleeting and transitory natural adornments began to decay, 
the " first love" was forgotten, and indifference succeeded. 

Or, perhaps, it was founded in an admiration of the good 
sense, the sweet manners, and the accomplished mind of the 
object of your affection, and yet, these apparently solid and 
hopeful grounds for ensuring wedded bliss have proved sadly 
delusive. 

The bitterness of misfortune has betrayed the fragile na- 
ture of the frail structure — the blasts of adversity have laid it 
in ruins on the earth — for, what can mental accomplish- 
ments do, to sustain the wounded and weary heart — and how 
often do trials and vexations bring down the most lofty spirit 
into the childishness of complaint — sour the serenest temper 
into moroseness, and (if there be not a higher principle at 
work) change the most agreeable into the most fretful and 
irksome companion! 

Your affection for your wives must, therefore rest on a 
far firmer basis than this — if it is to outlive the vexations of 
life — if it is to increase (as certainly it ought rather than 
diminish) with increasing years. 

4. And this, lastly, brings me to remark on the most 
important qualification of all, that your love for your 
wives, like that of Christ for His Church, must be a holy 
love. 

It may be costly, tender, and hitherto enduring, but, if it 
be deficient in this element, it must, in the end, go out in the 
darkness and desolation of sorrow. Would that the indis- 
pensable importance of this quality of true conjugal love were 

H 2 



100 THE DUTY OF HUSBANDS. 

more generally and seriously considered by those who are 
about to enter the matrimonial state ! 

What can those reasonably anticipate of domestic peace 
and comfort, who are guided in the formation of a connexion 
in life, so close and influential, solely by the capriciousness 
of fancy, or by a sordid desire to acquire a fortune, or to 
obtain a better position in society ? 

The prescribed law, to those who have in contemplation 
the union in question, is that " they marry only in the 
Lord," — an expression w r hich cannot be understood to mean 
anything less, than that the object of their choice should, in the 
judgment of sound charity, be the sincere followers of Christ. 

What, then, if this law be wilfully violated ? What if the 
motives, which have drawn them into this connexion, are purely 
worldly motives, — the mere solicitations of temporal wealth, 
and the attractions of beauty ? Will the blessing of the Lord 
rest upon their tabernacle ? Will not the forbidden bonds, 
by which they are linked together, become, day by day, more 
feeble and relaxed, until, in the end, they fall utterly asunder? 
Will not the unhappy individual who has taken the step from 
motives of vanity and covetousness, learn by painful ex- 
perience, that " a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of 
the things he possesseth ?" Let me solemnly warn each 
young man who hears me, that he enter not into a union, so 
sacred and momentous, without seriously examining his 
heart, and without seeking the special guidance and blessing 
of God. Let him remember, that those only" are blessed, 
whom the Lord Himself blesses, — that if there is any'enjoy- 
ment in the creature, it is only so far as He permits and places 
it there — one word from Him, and all its beauty fades, and 
its sustenance dries up, and, like the earth to Cain, it has no 
longer the power to minister either to our pleasure or our comfort. 



THE DUTY OF HUSBANDS. 101 

The simple story of the marriage of Isaac affords you a 
beautiful example of the anxiety and prayer which ought 
to precede the formation of so close and sacred a connexion. 
" A prudent wife," saith Solomon, " is from the Lord." Be- 
fore you take one to yourself, ask wisdom from Him, who 
giveth liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given 
you. 

If, however, there be one here, who has taken this step, 
without any reference to the Divine honour and guidance, a 
step which now it is too late to retrace, I beseech that indi- 
vidual to lose no time in seeking the pardon of an offended 
God— and, in asking him to turn away from him that curse 
which those inevitably inherit who transgress his express 
commands. 

If many a draught of comfort seems to linger in our cup, 
believe me, it will soon be exhausted. 

Life is before you, to be passed with one who has no attrac- 
tion nor qualification the charms of which will not gradually 
and surely decline. Years of trial are probably at hand. 
The evening of your days will at last draw on, and as you go 
feebly and slowly down the declivity of life, to enter the 
gloom of that cold valley from which there is no return, how 
greatly you will then feel the need of one, as your wedded 
partner, who is adorned with more than worldly gifts and 
accomplishments, — one who can cheer, animate, and support 
you beneath increasing infirmities, — hold up your hands by 
her prayers, and strengthen your failing knees at the close of 
your pilgrimage, by suggesting the great and precious pro- 
mises of God, and by pointing to the hope laid up for you in 
heaven ! 

This gloomy prospect is at present before you, but it is not 
too late to change and brighten it. 



102 THE DUTY OF HUSBANDS. 

There is One who is able, and willing as He is able, to 
turn every curse, which the repentant sinner has deserved, 
into a blessing. 0, then, for your own sake, and for the sake 
of her for whom you cannot but entertain some tender solici- 
tude, seek that gracious Being " while yet he may be found, and 
call upon Him while He is still near " — earnestly praying that 
both she and you may hereafter walk hand in hand in the 
path that leadeth unto life ; and that living unto the Lord, 
and dying unto the Lord, you may be partakers together of 
His grace here, and of His glory hereafter. 

To you, Husbands, who have chosen a better part, and 
have entered upon the married state in a far different spirit, I 
would offer, in conclusion, one brief word of affectionate counsel. 

Your lot is, unquestionably, the happiest on which the sun 
of this fallen earth can ever shine. 

But, remember the solemn admonition of the Apostle, in 
reference to your state, " the time is short, it remaineth, 
therefore, that they that have wives be as though they had 
none, for the fashion of this world passeth away." 

The Christian partner with whom you are so equally 
yoked together — with whom you are taking sweet counsel 
and walking in the house of God in company, must be at 
last severed from you, though it be for a very little while. 
Your years must pass away as " a tale that is told." Your 
handbreadth life must terminate. Yes, that dearest, closest tie 
which can bind two human beings together (so dear and close 
that it is said to signify to us the mystical union between 
Christ and His Church), even that tie must be rent asunder. 

Remember then, O husband, the great work assigned to 
you during the brief continuance of your wedded life — the 
one high and definite object for which it has pleased God to 
bind you to your partner in the holy estate of matrimony. 



THE DUTY OF HUSBANDS. 103 

It is, that you may promote as far as in you lies the life of 
God in the soul of your partner, to be the helper of her peace 
and joy — to be the instrument in the hands of God of deepen- 
ing his work — of eradicating corruptions, — of cherishing 
graces, — of weaning her from the world, and preparing her 
for a better. 

Yes, this is your special calling, — diligently and habitually 
act it out. Do not postpone this important duty, as too 
many do, to a bed of sickness and a dying hour. " Dwell 
with your wife according to knowledge," daily endeavouring 
to improve your intercourse with her, while it lasts, to her 
spiritual advantage. 

And then, should it please your heavenly Father to sum- 
mon her first into His bosom, what unspeakable consolation 
will it be, as every incident of your married life shall pass in 
vivid review before you, to feel, that amid many neglects and 
many sins, you have in some degree discharged this para- 
mount and most important duty, towards the loved com- 
panion of your sorrows and joys, — and that you ha^ve thus 
contributed, under God, to sustain and guide her through the 
changes and chances of this mortal life, safe to that holier 
and happier state, " where there is neither marrying nor giv- 
ing in marriage, but where we shall be equal to the angels 
of God !" 



®%t mmu of mibt$. 



Sermon U3L 



THE DUTY OF WIVES. 

Preached February 16, 1851. 



Ephesians, v. 22 — 24. "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own 
husbands as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as 
Christ is the head of the Church : and he is the Saviour of the body. 
Therefore, as the Church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their 
own husbands in every thing." 

The series of these discourses upon your relative domestic 
duties is now drawing to a close. I trust that this humble 
attempt to instruct you more perfectly in the way in 
which you should carry yourselves towards each other in the 
family relations you severally occupy, will not prove altogether 
fruitless. One important conviction at least cannot fail to 
have been left upon your minds (if you have listened to these 
instructions to any purpose), namely, that the morality of the 
Gospel infinitely transcends that which is current among men 
— that the divine commandment is exceeding broad, stretching 
far beyond the standard of the most exact human obedience. 

For who, on hearing what God would have him be in all 
holy conversation and godliness, even in the common things 
of life, can fail to be humbled in the recollection of his 
manifold short comings? 

In the light of such high and holy precepts as those upon 
which we have been meditating, how much of error, infirmity, 



108 THE DUTY OF WIVES. 

and neglect, marks our path as we turn our eye backward 
upon the scene that is behind us ! 

Where could we find among all our best duties and tenderest 
offices to each other, those that will stand the test of the 
balances of Eternal Justice ? 

Where, among all our boasted righteousnesses and most 
upright actions, is there one, with which (if the production of 
a single perfect act would open heaven) we could stand at its 
blessed portals and claim admittance ? 

Such an action, much less a series of such actions, cannot 
be found in any of our lives. 

How unmixed then would be the melancholy with which 
the Christian would enter into a comparison of his obedience 
with the requirements of God's word, had he to collect out 
of his poor and unworthy performances a ransom for his 
soul ! 

But thanks be to God that ransom is found ! There is a 
safe retreat for the penitent believer under the shadow of the 
Cross ; and a righteousness without spot or flaw, screens him 
for ever from the searching eye of a Holy God. Delivered 
from the condemning power of the law, and constrained by a 
sense of the love of that Redeemer who has interposed to 
save him from its curse, he now runs the way of God's 
commands with delight. And, depending exclusively on the 
grace of the Holy Spirit, continually sought by prayer, he 
makes sure progress in the path of holiness — he is daily going 
on to perfection — the image of Christ becomes more clearly 
exhibited in his temper and conduct, until at last the mark is 
reached, and he is gathered in among the spirits of the just 
made perfect. 

Let none, therefore, be discouraged who find themselves 
bowed into the dust when brought into contact with such 



THE DUTY OF WIVES. 109 

spiritual and holy precepts as those we have been contemplat- 
ing. There is the germ of heavenly joy in such humiliation 
of soul. It is the first step in the ascent of progressive 
sanctification which leads, without fail, unto final perfection 
in holiness and bliss. 

I have made these observations with a view to prepare the 
hearts of those whom I am especially to address to-day, to 
receive with meekness and a ready mind, a precept which 
comes behind none of the preceding in point of spirituality 
and difficulty of attainment. 

May the blessed spirit of counsel and might, " without 
whom nothing is strong and nothing is holy," accompany our 
meditations with His special blessing, while I place before you 
firstly, the model of a wife's obedience, even the subjection 
of the Church to Christ; and secondly, the nature and extent 
of her obedience, implied in the words, " as the Church is sub- 
ject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in 
every thing." 

I. — First then let us glance (as briefly as the subject will 
admit) at the pattern here held forth to the Christian wife, 
after which she is to mould her conduct to her husband. That 
pattern is the subjection of the Church to Christ. " The 
husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ also is the 
head of the Church, and he is Saviour of the body. There- 
fore as the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be 
to their own husbands in every thing." 

How strongly does the passage assert the supreme headship 
and inalienable sovereignty of Christ over His Church ! 

When we speak, however, of the Church, we mean not any 
one particular branch of the visible Church, characterized by 
any one particular form of outward discipline. 

Particular Churches there must be, and particular congrega- 



110 THE DUTY OF WIYES. 

tions, making up each particular Church ; but these are 
Churches of Christ at all " only so far" (as an eminent 
father of our communion* has observed) "as they do possess 
the doctrine of Christ pure and sincere, even the same which 
the Evangelists and Apostles have in the everlasting monu- 
ments of Holy Scripture faithfully disclosed to memory, and 
which do truly call upon God the Father, in the name of 
Christ ; and moreover do use his mysteries, commonly called 
Sacraments, with the same pureness and simplicity (as 
touching their substance) which the Apostles of Christ used 
and have put in writing." It is only out of such Churches 
as these, that the visible Church of Christ is composed ; for 
in these only are to be traced those marks and tokens which 
are set forth in Scripture as characteristics of the universal 
Church in all ages. These, together, form one holy brother- 
hood, even "the mystical body of God's Son, which is the 
blessed company of all faithful people." There may be 
between these different companies or congregations of faithful 
men, not always that outward uniformity after which we, who 
walk so much by sense and sight, are so impatiently sighing; 
but there is a deep under-current of actual unity pervading 
the whole body — and did but professing Christians only con- 
sider the number, greatness, and vital importance of the 
fundamental articles in which they all agree — that they have, 
in truth, " one Lord, one faith, and one baptism," — then 
surely would all bitterness and unholy rivalry pass away from 
their bosoms, and they would hold their common faith (as we 
daily pray that we may) " in unity of spirit, and in the bond 
of peace." 

Of this Church, in all ages, has the Saviour been the 



* Dean Nowell, 



THE DUTY OF WIVES. Ill 

supreme head. He is her governing head. She indeed claims 
(as our 20th article teaches) " power to decree rites, and 
ceremonies, and authority, in controversies of faith." She steps 
in with her general judgment as a moderator between private 
opinions. She is " a witness" to us of what we ought " to know 
and believe to our souls' health ;" and it is no small comfort 
to feel, that there is no one article of faith which is positively 
essential to our welfare and salvation, which does not come 
down to us, re-echoed by the teaching of every Scriptural 
Church of all ages — that we are not trusting to a figment of 
our individual fancy when we are confiding to God as our 
Father, to Christ as our Master and only Saviour, and to the Holy 
Ghost as our Comforter ; but that we are holding fast by the 
same rock as that on which " the glorious company of the 
Apostles, the goodly fellowship of the Prophets, and the noble 
army of martyrs" have rested in past ages, and will for ever rest. 

But she claims no infallibility. She pronounces no anathema 
upon such as refuse to bow to her decisions and decrees. She 
remembers that there is One from whom she derives all her 
authority ; and that although she is " a witness and keeper of 
Holy Writ, she may not decree any thing against the same, 
or require of any man to believe as an article of faith, as re- 
quisite and necessary to salvation, whatsoever is not read 
therein or may be proved thereby." 

Every rule, every law, and especially every doctrine, must 
be brought to this standard. 

She cannot go beyond the word of her Lord to do less or 
more. "If any man prophesy, let him prophesy according to 
the proportion of faith. If any man speak, let him speak as 
the oracles of God." 

And while there is in this submission of deference on the 
part of the Church to the authority of Christ, there is also 



112 THE DUTY OF WIYES. 

an entire dependence on him as her sustaining and protecting 
head. 

Her life, and the life of every individual member of her body, 
" is hid with Christ in God." The ordinances she dispenses 
are efficacious only as He makes them the channels of His 
grace. And just in proportion to the simplicity of her de- 
pendence uponher living Head does she flourish in the beauties 
of holiness, and win her way through all the strongholds of 
Satan that may oppose her in the world. 

Her enemies are innumerable and mighty — so numerous and 
powerful that she must long ago have sunk before them had 
He not planted Himself around her as a wall of fire. But 
how futile have been all their assaults ! How abundantly has 
her exalted Head vindicated his claim to the title ascribed to 
Him in this passage, "the Saviour of the Body!" 

Whether we consider the rapid propagation of the faith in 
the infant days of the Church — the preservation of a holy 
seed, and a succession of faithful witnesses, even in the dark 
ages — or the wonderful revival of truth and godliness, which 
took place at the Reformation, — we have the most clear and 
emphatic evidence of the faithful and omnipotent care, which 
Christ, as head over all things, continually exercises on be- 
half of his Church, — and "remembering the years of the right 
hand of the Most High," we are encouraged to anticipate 
the hour, when every enemy shall be cast beneath his foot- 
stool — and delivered from every fear, the whole ransomed 
Church shall be presented to the Father, " without spot, or 
wrinkle, or any such thing." 

May we all individually be taught this cardinal and essential 
truth of our entire dependency upon Christ ! May we con- 
tinually remember, in the use of the sacraments and institu- 
tions he has appointed for our " great and endless comfort," 



THE DUTY OF WIVES. 113 

that they are only efficacious, so far as the eye of faith looks 
through them, on Him, to whom they are intended to lead 
up our contemplations and hopes : "I am the Vine, and ye 
are the branches : he that abideth in me, and I in him, the 
same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me ye can do 
nothing." 

II. — Such is the model held up by the Holy Spirit of God 
in this passage, for the imitation of Christian wives, in their 
conduct towards their husbands : "As the Church is subject 
unto Christ, so let wives be unto their own husbands in every 
thing." It is not possible to conceive how language could 
be framed which could more clearly and decisively express 
the obligation on the part of woman to render an implicit 
and entire obedience to her wedded husband ; for not only is 
submission required, but submission " in every thing," yea, 
even " as the Church is subject unto Christ." 

Let us not think that such a precept has been written 
without a special design. 

We may be sure that the instructions of Holy Writ are 
accurately adjusted to our peculiar need of them. They 
occupy a proportion of prominency in the sacred page, regu- 
lated by the necessity that there is that we should pay them 
greater or less attention. When, therefore, I see precept 
upon precept charging obedience upon servants, I may be 
sure that obedience with them is a difficult and frequently 
neglected duty. When love towards their wives is so solemnly 
and repeatedly set before husbands as their especial obligation, 
— it is not difficult to conclude that men are prone to exercise 
their lawful authority with harshness, and to forget their vows 
of fidelity. In like manner, when submission to her husband is 
urged upon the Christian wife in the absolute and unqualified 
language of our text, it is because her peculiar temptation is 

i 



114 THE DUTY OF WIVES. 

to refuse obedience to him. I would then affectionately re- 
mind those who are wives among you, that submission to your 
husbands is your peculiar obligation — that unless when their 
commands are directly and positively opposed to some distinct 
command of God, you have but one plain and obvious duty 
— even to obey, 

This submission was ordained of God, even from the fall 
of man. It is a part of the original curse ; for when Eve 
sinned through a vain desire of knowledge and pre-eminence, 
the most holy God was pleased to punish her vanity with a 
disappointment of the very end after which she aspired — and 
the sentence was at once passed upon her : " Thy desire shall 
be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." — Gen. iii. 
16. 

It is true that this penal consequence of the fall, in common 
with every other, has been greatly mitigated by the Advent 
of Him, who " hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, 
being made a curse for us ;" and, under the benign influence of 
the Gospel, the authority of the husband, when exercised with 
wisdom and tenderness, cannot fail to increase mutual felicity. 

Still the condition of woman remains the same. It is one 
of dependence and subjection. She is to be " subject to her 
husband in every thing, even as the Church is subject to 
Christ." 

It may, perhaps, be urged that the wife has frequently 
more discretion and ability to govern, than her husband — 
and therefore, on this account, may think herself excused 
from paying obedience and living in subjection ; to this we do 
not hesitate to reply, that while she has perfect liberty to use 
her superior capacity and intelligence in giving counsel — nay, 
while it is her bounden duty to do all, that in her lies, within 
her assigned province, to watch over her husband's interests, 



THE DUTY OF WIVES. 115 

and to see that the fruit of his labours is not wasted through 
extravagance, or for want of proper household management 
and supervision — it is not for her to assert the place of 
authority. The Christian rule is positive against such 
usurpation. 

" Let the wife see that she reverence her husband." 

I need not say that the precept before us condemns that 
contentiousness of spirit in the wife, which the royal moralist 
in the Book of Proverbs describes, as being productive of so 
much domestic misery. 

In the ordinary round of every-day intercourse, this spirit 
will too commonly show itself ; and the most trivial circum- 
stance will call it forth. But the submission commanded is 
to be uniform and sustained, even in little things ; and the 
Christian wife, instead of being ruffled at petty vexations or 
trifling contradictions, much less " returning evil for evil, or 
railing for railing," will ever " manifest herself in all quietness, 
sobriety, and peace, to be a follower of holy and godly 
matrons." 

It would be well if parents amid their eager efforts to clothe 
their daughters with showy accomplishments and external 
attractions, would be more anxious to deck them with " the 
ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which in the sight of 
God is of great price," and is of unspeakable importance to 
the good order and happiness of every domestic circle. 

Let me remind them that their children may shine in the 
world's esteem, it is true, by a display of singular talents, but 
these will by no means compensate for the absence in them 
of the graces of self-denial, meekness, and humility, which 
are indispensable to make them valued and admired in the less 
dazzling but more important sphere of home. 

Sarah is held up in Scripture, as the fairest possible specimen 



116 THE DUTY OF WIVES. 

of conjugal fidelity and affection in woman ; but since there 
is no mention of any particular features of her disposition or 
extraordinary acts of devotedness, we may suppose that the 
beauty of her character simply consisted in her quiet and un- 
obtrusive walk with God, in the peaceful round of her com- 
mon domestic duties ; her lively faith and fervent piety mani- 
festing itself in her holy submission to her husband, "whom 
she called lord," and in the faithful and conscientious ex- 
ercise of her subordinate authority over her household, both 
as a mother and as a mistress. 

These things you will, perhaps, say are comparatively easy 
(as in the instance just quoted) where both are walking hand 
in hand in one path — where the fear of God and love of 
Christ are mutually the sole guiding principles ; but it is far 
otherwise when husband and wife are passing through life 
upon paths wholly diverse in their character and direction, 
and the fearful interval between them is rapidly widening, as 
time rolls on. 

We admit that there are peculiar difficulties in such a case. 
It is hardly possible to enter into or describe how great and 
distressing those difficulties are ; and the poignant anguish 
which cannot fail to pierce the heart of the religious wife is 
often greatly aggravated by the remorseful consideration, that 
had she been actuated by a more single desire to please God 
in forming a connexion, the sacred ligaments of which death 
now only can sever — she would not be sinking under the 
burden of a cross, of which none but those who actually bear 
it, can know the crushing weight. A wife, however, may 
have been drawn into a position so distressing unwittingly — 
through the artful professions and deceptive exterior, tem- 
porarily assumed by her husband previous to marriage, for the 
purpose of gaining her confidence; or she herself may have 



THE DUTY OF WIVES. 117 

been brought to a heartfelt perception of eternal things sub- 
sequent to their union, while her partner still remains careless, 
impenitent, and una wakened. 

But whatever be the circumstances which have led her into 
it, her position is one of the most distressing we can conceive. 
How is she to carry herself in it ? The Scriptures furnish 
her with the clearest directions. 

In the iiird chapter of the 1st Epistle of St. Peter, you 
will observe the Apostle commences the chapter by saying — 
" Likewise ye wives be in subjection to your own husbands ;" 
although in the following words he supposes that in many 
cases those husbands might not be obedient to the truth. — 
He then proceeds with his instructions on this wise, "Be in 
subjection to your husbands, that if any obey not the word, 
they also may without the word be won by the conversation 
of the wives, whose adorning let it not be that outward 
adorning of plaiting the hair, or of wearing of gold, or of 
putting on of apparel, but let it be the hidden man of the heart 
in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek 
and quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is of great price." 

Difficult, therefore, and painful as her situation may be, 
the Christian wife, under the circumstances w T e have sup- 
posed, has but one course to pursue. 

She is to be submissive to her husband, even though his 
will shall frequently force her in to scenes, and connexions, and 
pursuits, which if they be not positively sinful, are, neverthe- 
less, to the last degree painful and repulsive to her mind. In 
every thing, except when his wishes actually oppose a plain 
command of God, is she to obey : and this, for one high end 
of infinite moment, even that she may gain over her husband 
to the side of Christ and His truth, by the irresistible eloquence 
of a meek and humble spirit. 



118 THE DUTY OF WIVES. 

You will observe, however, that there is to be no compro- 
mise. She is not (as she may be tempted to be) to descend 
to worldly arts, and to have recourse to studied ornaments 
and cosily apparel in order to secure the esteem and admira- 
tion of a worldly mind. The holy enterprise in which she is 
engaged will be defeated, rather than advanced, by such 
earthly devices. The alienated and ungodly heart is only to 
be carried, in such a case, by the exhibition of the precious 
but unobtrusive graces of a Christian life, the privacy of 
which endears them the more to those, who as each day rolls 
by, have some fresh opportunity of experiencing their benign 
influence, and of appreciating their unearthly beauty and 
inestimable worth. 

Then, although your husband be a Nabal in disposition, it 
is still your obligation, like Abigail, to consult his welfare, 
and to seek to avert from him those evils which you have 
reason to fear are coming upon him. It is not for you indeed 
to assume the office of instructor and monitor — it is not for 
you to admonish or reprove — you can, however, be daily em- 
ploying the persuasive utterance of a meek and submissive 
spirit to turn him from his godless ways ; and who shall say 
whether such arguments shall not ultimately prevail, and 
whether, at length, the light of saving truth shall not flash 
upon his benighted heart, and at a future day you shall not 
have it in your power to recognize yourself as united to him 
by a bond which neither things present, nor things to come, 
shall ever put asunder ? 

In conclusion, then, I call upon each wife who hears me to 
consider that if the place of authority has been denied to 
her, she possesses the stewardship of a talent not less weighty 
and responsible. 

Let her remember the vast extent and moment of that tn- 



THE DUTY OF WIVES. 119 

Jluence, which in her peculiar position she cannot fail to be 
exerting, day after day, over her husband. 

Because that influence operates silently and unobtrusively, 
it is not on that account to be regarded as insignificant and 
powerless. The most imposing operations of nature are 
far from being the most mighty. The sudden flash from the 
thunder cloud is dazzling and destructive in the extreme; but 
let it not for a moment be supposed that the lightning is an 
agency which can at all be compared with gravity — that 
tremendous though unseen force which holds all the frame- 
work of nature together. 

And so^ believe me, there is a constant stream of influence 
flowing unbidden from woman in wedded life, either for 
good or for evil, which is the more potent from its being so 
silent, quiet, and perpetual in its operation. 

This, surely, is an affecting thought, and very full of comfort 
to those of you who are unequally yoked to unbelieving 
husbands. Let it give new wings to your intercession on their 
behalf. Let it especially arouse you to more earnest efforts 
in well doing, in the hope that you shall eventually breathe 
your spirit and transfer your image into their bosoms. 

Terrible on the other hand will it be found for those who 
have abused or neglected this mysterious power ! 

Terrible for Jezebeh — for Zeresh, — for Herodias, — for 
Sapphira, — for Drusilla, — whose conjugal influence was put 
forth to lure and hurry their but too fond and yielding 
partners to destruction ! 

One of the most sad and affecting probabilities which we 
are permitted to connect with the last Judgment is, that friends 
and kindred will take part in testifying against the finally 
impenitent, and in aggravating their condemnation. 

It might seem scarcely possible to call up before the mind 



120 THE DUTY OF WIVES. 

a more heart-rending scene, than that of condemnation upon 
the unbelieving husband being justified by the unwearied but 
fruitless efforts for his salvation of one, who dearly loved and 
w r as herself beloved — and who perhaps would have given life 
itself could she have secured happiness to him, who w r ould 
never be persuaded, and from whom, in spite of her tears 
and entreaties, she is now finally severed by a gulf impassable. 

And yet, assuredly, far more appalling is the thought of 
being together consigned to thoserayless mansions, where hope 
and happiness are for ever excluded, and this mainly by the 
influence of the wife, whose words of fondness were poison — 
and who, all life through, had gained increasing ascendency 
over her partner's affections, only to employ this ascendency 
as a channel for the infusion of ungodliness into his heart. 

May God in His mercy avert from all who hear me so 
dreadful and disastrous a termination of their married life ! — 
May it never be found, that either have hindered the other 
from entering the narrow path, or have caused the hesitating, 
unestablished feet that have lately entered it, to turn back 
again into the way of perdition ! 

Strive, on the contrary, I beseech you, heartily and prayer- 
fully strive to promote each other's everlasting safety, while 
the transitory span of your wedded intercourse still holds out. 

Mutually cherish and sustain the divine life in each other's 
souls, during your brief pilgrimage on earth, so that at the last 
you may enter together the same circle of the redeemed in 
the mansions of eternity, and sit down to share the same in- 
effable and endless joys, at the marriage supper of the 
Lamb, 

May the solemn considerations, which have been urged 
upon your attention in the course of these Sermons, move 
you all, beloved brethren, in your respective relations, to 



THE DITTY OF WIVES. 121 

improve your fleeting earthly intercourse, to your mutual 
eternal felicity. 

O ! the bitter thought of an everlasting Reparation ! Parents 
and children — masters and servants* — husbands and wives- — 
who have dwelt together under the same roof-tree, and 
shared with each other all the vicissitudes of life — to be torn 
asunder at last — and to be severed to meet no more for ever ! 
None will be able to plead for another when once Judg- 
ment comes. Such pleadings could only be made to be 
refused. Let those pleadings be urged now. 

Be one in spirit, in aim, in action now— living together as 
candidates for immortality — and who shall sever the bonds of 
your love ? 

O ! the security and blessedness of a united Christian house- 
hold, the various members of which, in themselves, constitute 
a miniature Church ! Such was the house of Philemon, 
blessed with the smile of Apphia — his son Archippus a Christ- 
ian minister — Onesimus his penitent servant — and Paul his 
guest. What a spectacle does such a family present to con- 
found the infidel ! "What a centre of light and holy influence 
does it prove to the surrounding neighbourhood ! Who can 
compute the amount of blessing, that was shed around by 
the household of Stephanas, after their baptism by St. Paul r 
They " addicted themselves," we read, " to the ministry of 
tils Saints," and became "the first-fruits" of a glorious 
ingathering of the Church " in Achaia." 

Let death invade such a circle. Their sorrow is not like 
that of others. 

He is a fearful guest in the dwellings of the ungodly. No 
light streams upon their darkness. No star of hope gems 
the brow of their deep midnight. 

But, through the tears of the Christian household are seen 

K 



122 THE DUTY OF WIVES. 

visions of glorious prospects — and they recal their loved one 
only to cherish the persuasion, that he is not lost ! They 
realise him as still before them — beckoning them onward to 
share his unfading crown — and standing ready to " receive 
them into everlasting habitations." 

Soon shall the last longed-for meeting take place — and all 
the divided members of that godly family shall be, at home 
with the Lord. 

Here, with all their peace and amity, and gentle offices of 
love, there was still anxiety. Here, there were temptations, 
solicitude, and frequent partings. Here, there was much to 
forbear — much to forgive. But there all is purity, and joy 
and perfect peace ! They wear but one spotless garb ! They 
engage in but one high occupation ! They sing one harmonious 
song ! All are there rescued from every danger and snare ! 
They have all " escaped to land" from the storms of life's 
rough ocean ! All are assembled upon the coasts of that 
world, the riches of whose bliss are without measure and end ! 

The word of Him, who gave back from the grave, to the 
sisters of Bethany, their only brother — who in a moment 
stanched the inconsolable grief of the mother of Nain, and 
she too a widow, by the restoration of her only son — and 
whos'e " talitha cumi" shed once more upon the marble 
cheek of the daughter of Jairus, the bloom of childhood, and 
bade her again speak comfort to the breaking hearts of ljer 
parents by her familiar smile, — that voice has placed them 
side by side, far away from all danger and woe — and to Him 
shall they, throughout eternity, pour forth the unceasing 
song, " Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, 
and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever ! " 

May this blessed prospect be realised by us all, through 
Jesus Christ our Lord ! Amen. 



THE BITTY OF WIVES. 123 

Now unto Him who is able to keep you from falling, and to 
present you faultless before the presence of His Glory with 
exceeding joy, to the only w r ise God our Saviour, be glory 
and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. 



COLLECT. 

Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole 
body of the Church is governed and sanctified ; receive our 
supplications and prayers which we offer before thee for all 
estates of men in Thy Holy Church, that every member 
of the same, in his vocation and ministry, may truly and 
godly serve Thee ; through our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ. Amen. 



J. LAVER, PRINTER, 
GT. PORTLAND ST., PORTLAND PLACS. 



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